Anon, is this guy, the engineer, still in custody? Are the youth in those camps not POWs but those arrested in search operations outside the war zone?

These arrests are, I guess, the unfortunate results of the paranoia that gripped the South, when bombs were going off in public places regularly, or being discovered in residential areas. But I’m glad that they were highlighted at the LLRC because these cases must get some attention now. We have a lot to loose if we just forget them. I’m sure they must also be a burden on the government, what with our overcrowded prisons and the accusations of human rights violations.

But I was happy when the columnist DBS Jeyaraj said he was satisfied to a great extent by the government’s efforts to rehabilitate captured Tiger cadres.

* lose

Don’t know about the engineer, only just saw this in the paper. On the those in custody, there are those taken in from all areas. There are some subtleties that many people miss the distinction between:

1. Being imprisoned after conviction
2. Being held without charge.

Under (1) the people held have gone through some process, however flawed (like Gen Fonseka) and are jailed.

Under (2) people are taken in under suspicion and held WITHOUT CHARGE.

When you arrest a man, you surely know what you are arresting him for? If you can’t even charge a person, why hold them in custody?

The standard safeguard is that a person MUST be brought before a magistrate and charged with an offense within a specified period (a week or ten days, I think) of arrest. Once charged the judge will decide whether the person can be bailed out or remanded. Bail will be offered where there is not likely to be a danger to society. After that the police will need to periodically produce the suspect before the magistrate giving the results of ongoing investigation and recommending further remand or bail which the judge will decide. When enough evidence is gathered formal prosecution begins ending in conviction or release.

The safeguard with regard to charging and producing the man before a magistrate is to prevent abuse by the police-arbitrary detention on whims and fancies of a policeman who does not like your face. The judge is supposed to act as a check on the police.

Under the Emergency Reg. and PTA all these safeguards are suspended and detention without charge for 90 days (I dont know if it was extended further) is possible. The argument was that potentially very dangerous people were loose, the police dont have enough time to investigate before arrest, in the interest of public safety hold them for a longer period while investigations are complete.

Godage and the others are talking of cases of people being held for YEARS without charge and many months detention is almost normal. When the courting couples in Kurunegala were arrested it would have been was under the emergency, they had not committed a breach of normal law. Considering that simple sentence for a minor offense would be 3 months or 6 month imprisonment holding a person without charge for 4 1/2 months on the basis that “he was intending to make false allegations against the Government” which is what happened to a character called Shantha Fernando.

You can read some comments on that story here:

http://www.island.lk/2009/08/20/features3.html

According to a news report

http://www.acpp.org/jpwb/jpwb0904.htm

he was bailed out after 225 days. Have not been able to find what happened after that.

The press rarely reports on these things except in passing (as a news story on the main pages). Delving through the features in the middle pages (like the Island report) is where we get bits and pieces of info. To the casual reader it is missed and everyone thinks everything is fine and wonder why people are making such a fuss. Seeing no cause for alarm they then assume that the propaganda line “everyone who questions the government is a traitor” is true and thereafter suspend all critical faculties.

Anon, at least you care enough to bring this to the notice of this forum, limited though it may be. We tend to push these things to the back of our minds with the little day to day preoccupations of our own. But even if we wanted to, there is little you and I could do, is there?

It’s the responsibility of our elected representatives, who are happily enjoying the perks of office or are too busy with their internal squabbles to pay any attention to the conduct of the police force or the law’s delays, which are making their voter’s lives miserable. The most disgraceful is the UNP with the rats already deserting the sinking ship. It’s only the JVP that seems to be offering any kind of resistance, and they are woefully handicapped. But our highly literate people will continue to vote in the crooks. That’s the tragedy.

It’s our own fault for the calibre of the people we vote in, and our apathy towards the nomination lists. We have got what we deserve, but some of us are such duds that we don’t even realise that we’ve been shortchanged.

People get the government they deserve and I agree fully about the UNP and the sad state of the politicos. We need to change things from top to bottom and Ranil needs to go fast.

More seriously, what you CAN do is scan the papers and the web (news sites, blogs everything) more closely and observe what goes on. Talk to people, your staff, the servants, colleagues, listen to what goes on. Pick up whats important and pass to other people who are willing to listen. When the media is silent the people are left blind. Light a candle, when you can.

To add something I forgot to say in my previous comment: the practice has now become not just to detain but to also take the family in, which is what happened to the man who printed a poster recently.

see:

http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2010/09/08/unp-poster-printers-family-in-police-custody/

This is usually done if the suspect is missing (hold the family as a hostage until the suspect gives himself up) or to put added pressure on the suspect. To take innocents into custody- how wrong can this be? Yet it happens and no one is bothered, which is an indication of how benumbed people have become.

I’ll try, I promise.
I do have a better idea, but I’m sure implementing that would guarantee us a one way trip in a white van.
Or we’ll be arrested and taken to the spot where the weapons are hidden, and when we reach it, we’ll inexplicably decide to perform ssomersaults, so that when the cops aim to shoot below the knee the bullet hits us on the head.

:)

thats why I’m anonymous, but just start with friends and family. You’ll notice from some of the links above that it is happening to Sinhala people now, I keep thinking of the two boys who were murdered in Angulana, the student in Matara and a few others.

http://colombotoday.com/english/articles/Lite/All-police–Angulana-transferred-2-deaths/4971.htm

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=6850

That made the news because the villagers all but rioted, but nothing has really been done.

True, those people may be poor, they may lack influence, they may belong to the low rungs of society and who knows they may have been courting disaster making fun of a cop’s mistress but did they deserve that? And what is to prevent it happening again? First it was teh Tamils, now it is the poor, when will our turn come?

Some interesting points from Anon.

In response to an incident such the one in Angulana, in the UK I would have expected the following:

1. Someone taking responsibility. The IGP and maybe the minister of Home Affairs (or whoever the police comes under) tendering their resignations for the lapses in the departments under them and calling for a full public inquiry. The media investigating on their own and the full story receiving wide coverage leading to a public outcry.
2. Public commission to inquire in to the roots of the problem and come up with recommendation for changes in procedure/systems to ensure that it cannot recur. Eg. Recomendations could include things like, relatives to be informed of all arrests, given regular access to suspects to ensure they are in good health while in custody, compulsory access for social workers/lawyers to those in custody etc
3. Parallel to the above, full police inquiry and prosecution of culprits through normal law

What has happened looks like a hush up. Transfer the cops just to take the heat off (like removing a certain minister when the Samurdhi people took to the streets after a certain incident, but who was reinstated as soon as possible) and then downplay the thing until people forget.

But this is Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka nobody accepts responsibility, no one resigns and reports of commissions are not made public, or if they are, recommendations are ignored. Media reports are read and forgotten.

The opposition is only interested in pointing out the deficiencies of the government in order for them to get in to power, so that they can do the same things or improve upon the performance of their predecessors. They are not interested in doing anything to correct the situation.

The people just don’t care anymore, they know that any action against the authorities on their part will only get them victimised, and so remain helpless and indifferent to their neighbour’s plight, until they themselves are the victims. Only people with influence or large amounts of money to splash around have a hope of getting justice.

But even though I know this I never want to make anywhere else my permanent home.

I think I was wrong to say people are indifferent to their neighbour’s plight. They ignore injustice when it happens to someone not known to them personally. But if it was a relative or close friend, everyone gets active and start calling in favours and supporting the affected family in every way they can.
I think that’s how people survive and go on regardless. It’s the social support system.

The story goes. There was an ex-SLFP’er who crossed over some time back. The guy is old and he died. His grandson tells me that he died an UNP’er. Anyway, being an ex-SLFP’er, MR sent him a wreath, an official letter of condolence and then at 6 in the morning he got a call from the Presidents office saying MR would like to speak to him. He talked to the grandson in person.

Ranil on the other hand sent a message through another MP (Karu Jayasuriya). Remember this man died a UNP’er.

The same grandson, who happens to be a strong UNP supporter still, he sort of lost a position because MR appointed someone in his place, he’s a bit pissed about that. Yes, anyway, the same guy said that him and peers of his of the same profession were invited to a function by Ranil during the 2005 elections. At this function, Ranil had talked about what could be done to improve their industry, as if he had already won the election. There was also a Monk present who had told Ranil, “you might like to talk about what you need to do to win the election, because it is not as easy as you might think”. Ranil had ignored that piece of advice.

Then later on, when they were all waiting for dinner to be served, while everyone else was conversing and getting to know each other, Ranil had sat on his chair with his hands pressed together between his legs and looking down.

Piss poor PR.

I’m also hearing now that even Sajith Premadasa is a bit like Ranil as described above. If that is true, my last hope for the UNP is gone.

They say Ranil’s mother is a very strong character and very ambitious for him. Poor guy was probably forced in to politics. Might explain the failures and certain other things we hear.

What it says about the rest is that they like the ideologies of people like Ranil, but they are clueless as to how someone like Ranil should get to power and why someone like Ranil might not be able to get into power.

If Sajith is the same, then I’m guessing the very same people, and me included this time around, are again clueless. I’ve heard many a UNP’er say, “Sajith is playing a nice waiting game”. I nod my head in affirmation, but honestly, how do I know that’s what he’s doing?

There’s more to politics than a manifesto. Anyone here studied political science? I’m guessing things like dress, behaviour, interaction with different social groups, speeches, distinct appearance, smile, voice, hell even size probably matters in addition to the usual things like donations or providing economic leverage to people by implementing things like housing schemes or whatever.

Knowing how to play that game is extremely important, because before you can do the things you believe in, you have to get to where you can actually do them. How that is done is something MR & Co. excels in.

About Ranil’s PR skills, I once read this article by Ambalangodaya in a sinhala newspaper, where he says he advised Ranil to connect more with the masses at UNP rallies, to make eye contact etc. (Premadasa (snr) is supposed to have been very good at this and was able make every person at a rally feel that he was being individually addressed.) He had urged Ranil to at least wave at the crowds when arriving at or leaving a venue instead of looking at the ground. Well, it seems Ranil for once took this guy’s advice, and looked up, smiled and waved, and immediately toppled over in a heap. Apparently he’s such a baby he couldn’t co-ordinate the walk and the wave.

Yeah, I guess when dabbling in politics at the national level personal charisma is also as important as policies and capability.

Ranil is a disaster. He should have left years ago, in 2005. he would have then preserved his dignity.

My father says that if he had resigned the moment CBK took the ministries back in 2003 and forced an election he would have won and been a hero. By dithering he lost the initiative and allowed here to regroup and was outwitted ever since.

The UNP is a disaster… filled with total dickheads from top to bottom. It’s funny how the Colombo ESEs still continue to suck UNP dick without any shame.