Brutality, bribes and bullying
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| Rajapakse family is heading for a total breakdown and its euphoric and dictatorial behaviour is getting on the nerves of the populace who voted in Mahinda as they increasingly feel the pinch of trying to survive never mind live, could equally call for a change of government. |
by Pearl Thevanayagam
(August 08, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Evidence can be found Sir, the moronic sidekick for the CID chief Inspector Grimms in the popular British TV comedy, Thin Blue Line, replies when asked why he had not found evidence of drugs in the home of a suspect Grimms wants prosecuted. The beer swilling football fanatic and male chauvinist CID assistant belies the myth of British honesty when he plants a bag of cocaine behind a cooker to apprehend an undesirable so that Inspector Grimms could get his promotion and be pole-vaulted to Scotland Yard.
Our own police in sunny Sri Lanka do one better than this PC. They not only plant evidence but they insist on the accused confessing to crimes he/ she had not committed at the insistence of either the rich and the powerful or the politicians.
The witch hunt for the LTTE in the capital in the ‘80s and ‘90s saw OICs making mints of money apprehending any Tamil from the North and East seen near the Ministry of Defence or other high security installations, close to parliament or simply taking a walk down Galle Face Green. I could not find a van driver to take me to my work place since at security checkpoints Tamils were asked to get down and show the ID thus inconveniencing other passengers in the vehicle by being late for work.
A visibly pregnant lady working in the typesetting department at Veerakesari was taken in for questioning by the Slave Island police in 1996 at Galle Face as she and her cousin were looking for the passport office all because they were Tamils from Batticaloa. The police know only too well she could not possibly pose any danger to national security but the idea was to wheedle out some cash in bribe.
Harshi Perera, a human rights lawyer, has been highlighting in this column many incidences of police apathy, brutality and downright lawlessness among law enforcers and as a result we have a situation that it is safer not to involve the police if we can help it.
It took me eight years to apply for my ID which was confiscated from me at my house by the JVP in 1990 who came in hoods showing toy guns, ransacked my house and demanded I hand over my ID as they did with other members of my family. I dared not go to Kadawatha Police who were notorious for ill-treating Tamils and I was not taking any chances. Thankfully I survived with my press accreditation card and passport at checkpoints.
Finally I had to seek the help of a police chief who instructed the OIC at Kadawatha Police to issue me a with police report stating that it was confiscated by the JVP. I waited six hours for a PC who could type out the police report in Sinhala. Even then I had to get the Enderamulla Grama Sevaka to expedite my national ID for which he demanded Rs1000. Eventually the precious cargo arrived in two weeks and I heaved a sigh of relief.
Then there was the time I was outside Food City (opposite Visumpaya, formerly Acklands House which is now said to be the palatial residence offered to KP) reading the horoscope of LTTE leader Prabakaran to write a story for the week’s edition when a jeep pulled up and asked me to get inside the jeep. I refused and demanded that my editor be notified. As luck would have it a male friend arrived and asked the police what the hullabaloo was about. Then they drove off and I thanked my lucky stars and my friend.
Another time I was at Fort Railway Station to board a train to Hatton when all of a sudden a group of men in civil asked me to open my travel bag. I refused and told them I would only do this in the ladies room. By this time a crowd had gathered and a woman attendant at the station took the CID officers and ransacked my bag. My crime this time was that since I asked for a replacement of a cheaper fare the ticketing clerk had refused and I kept insisting I only wanted the cheaper ticket. Finding out I was a Tamil he had called in the CID. This time the peon who delivered letters at the Sunday Leader told them I was a journalist. Once more I was saved by human kindness in the form of this peon.
An ordinary police constable’s salary may not be what his counterpart gets in the West but that is no excuse to fleece the civilians he is supposed to protect.
Independency of the police force just like the media is in the hands of politicians and the rich and the powerful. Even DIGs cannot act without interference from these VIPs. The 17th amendment to the constitution which could have liberated the Police Commission from political interference was thrown out of the window so as to enable the family run government to wield its influence willy nilly.
Rajapakse family is heading for a total breakdown and its euphoric and dictatorial behaviour is getting on the nerves of the populace who voted in Mahinda as they increasingly feel the pinch of trying to survive never mind live, could equally call for a change of government. They have had it up to their eyeballs with the government partying constantly with their money.
(The writer is Asia Pacific Journalism Fellow at UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, California and a print journalist for 21 years. She can be reached at pearltheva@hotmail.com)
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