Rambukkana killing and accountability

Police opened fire at people protesting new fuel price increases, killing one and injuring 13 others, in Rambukkana on Tuesday marking another bloody milestone in the anti-Government protests that are now raging across the country. The Government hospital in Kegalle reported that 14 people were brought there with gunshot wounds and one had died. 

The latest episode of violence is just another blip in the long and disgraceful history of police brutality in this country. In the last two years alone at least 17 persons were killed while in the custody of the police. In 2011 police fired live ammunition at a group of protesters at the Katunayake Free Trade Zone and killed a 21-year-old man. Not a single policeman has been held responsible for these heinous crimes which has set a precedent of immunity for custodial deaths and police brutality.

The use of the military to kill protesters in Rathupaswala in 2013 has set a further precedent on using security forces against non-violent protests. Instead of holding the perpetrators of that crime accountable, the brigadier in charge of the military unit that killed three civilians was not only promoted in rank but given a diplomatic posting to the Sri Lanka mission in Turkey by the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government.

The Roman poet Decimus Junius Juvenalis in his seminal work, Satires, asks, “Who will guard the guards themselves?” This is a pertinent question with regard to the police and military apparatus now unleashed against the protests that have sprung countrywide. 

It seems that a carte blanche of immunity is carried by the police and military in their dealings with protestors. This need not be and those who are giving orders to shoot unarmed protesters and those carrying out such orders should be placed on notice that the law, however weak it may seem at the moment, is still against them and that they can face consequences for their actions at a future date. 

In the Appeal Court judgment of the case concerning the killing of Premawathi Manamperi, it was held that the Army Act requires a person subject to military law to obey only the lawful commands given by his superior officers. It is not applicable to a command which is obviously unlawful. According to the dicta of this case officers holding custody of prisoners are duty bound to ensure their safety. 

The blame for the recent spate of police violence lies squarely with the Inspector General of Police and the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security. Not only have these individuals failed to address the systemic and endemic problem of police brutality but their actions have often overtly and covertly enabled such actions. On numerous occasions individuals in police custody have been brutally murdered even while warnings have been given regarding their safety. The killings of alleged criminals, often associated with the drug trade, has been normalised and dehumanised. Such routine violence has created a culture within the police that has enabled the use of lethal force against unarmed civilians. 

Promises of investigations into the recent incidents at Rambukkana by the IGP should be taken with a pinch of salt. History proves that such investigations usually are forgotten soon after the heat of the crime dies down. Those who ordered the shooting and those who carried out the orders are likely to get away, this time as well. At best a few officers may get transferred. It is therefore necessary to hold the IGP and the Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security who enabled such a crime personally accountable.