Anton Michael a human rights activist has been manhandled by prison guards and left for dead last week, after the guards administered last rites to him. In so called civil society groups in Sri Lanka, Michael's story looks to be another one headed right into the dustbin of history. Civil society has more pressing issues on its plate, such as peace 'ceasefire', Freedom of Information Act, 'transparency' 'media credibility' etc., etc.,

But in fact, Michael's story is the last and perhaps the most surreally frightening in a long list of police brutality cases in Sri Lanka in the recent past. I am not going to cite chapter and verse -- that is a waste of time, and is best left to writers of papers which seek in the main to qualify for aid grants from foreign funders.

But it is easy to recap. There was the case of singer Caldera's son, who was shot by policemen when he went into a police station close to Negombo to make an entry against the thug who intimidated him on the road in an overtaking incident. It is correct that the Supreme Court awarded damages to the victim to be paid by the police officers concerned, but that does not alter the fact that the victim is unable to lead a normal life and has to urinate with the aid of catheter and is more or less paralysed for the rest of his life.

Then there was the case of the rape of two Tamil women at a checkpoint in Colombo. Again, the Supreme Court recognised rape as a form of cruel inhuman and degrading treatment, and it was treated as a somewhat landmark judgment, which is in itself curious as any self respecting Supreme Court anywhere in the world would have awarded damages to the victims in this open and shut case.

There was then the case of mistaken identity of a man in Hendala, who had been arrested at a bus stand because 'he looked like the suspect in a fraud case.'' He was severely beaten until the police realised the mistake, and was released subsequently. The last I knew of the case, the man had been hospitalised with critical injuries.

Then there was the case in Kandy of a man (a teacher if memory serves me right) who got into the car of a doctor by mistake at the Kandy Hospital, was 'apprehended' by passers-by, arrested by the police and assaulted, resulting in his death. There are other cases in the recent past which are too numerous to mention. A particularly poignant one was the case of the boy who was tortured, hung on a rafter by his feet, and assaulted, because of some goings-on in his vicinity. It turned out the boy was totally innocent.

Obviously, there is serial police assault that's in evidence within our system, but society isn't shocked or even mildly ruffled. Any innocent person can be subject to this kind of assault and brutality, but the civil society response has been to be sporadically concerned, on a case by case basis. This has been the political response too. For instance, it is said that the Prime Minister and the police chief have ordered probes into the latest case -- that of Anton Michael.

The saddest upshot of it all is that it is apparent that society is totally desensitized to the issue. But, what is also sad is that the civil society and political response has been to 'manage' the problem on an ad hoc basis. The fact that police brutality is a persistent malaise in Sri Lanka has not really bothered anyone who can make a difference. But, obviously the ad hoc approach of appointing special probe teams on a case by case basis has not helped. Neither have the existing laws, the fundamental rights legislation etc, helped, even though in certain instances the culprits have been brought to justice.

But police brutality remains, and is on the increase. If that is the case there has to be a special response. So called 'civil society' and the political leadership should focus on the issue, and deliver a special response. There needs to be special legislation and extraordinary legislation to tackle the issue -- but at least a beginning can be made by identifying the problem in the first place.

But the articulate prefer to natter on about issues that are far 'sexier' by the standards of the civil society conspiracy. What conspiracy? It is as if civil society has conspired to keep certain issues in the front burner -- issues that are imbued with far more non-governmental 'sex-appeal'' ie; issues that bring in the bucks, issues that are talked about in seminar rooms from Switzerland to Honolulu and then from Shanghai to Auckland.

It is a safe bet one can take that there is no civil society lobby group or non governmental watchdog which has so far organised or intends to organise so much as a seminar on police brutality. Not that seminars achieve much, but at least they could put the issue in the crosshairs of the decision makers, and create simple awareness.

At the risk of sounding didactic, perhaps it would be relevant to cite a quote from Mahathma Gandhi here. Gandhi said 'a society can be judged by the way it treats its animals.'' What of a society that treats its own members worse than animals on a continuous basis?

Police brutality places all persons - and as the above cases show -- often totally innocent persons at risk of death torture assault and intimidation. Not that a person who is guilty should be brutalised! But, the plain truth is that all and sundry are at risk -- but the social response has been one of total indifference.

Simple solutions such as 'the police should be educated' or 'the IGP should hold himself responsible ' would not work. In fact the IGP should resign for a case of police brutality as straightforward as Michael's. But such things won't happen and won't help in this country. Carefully thought out special legislation is necessary to eliminate police brutality from society, and the think-tanks should begin to work on legislation that is appropriate with a view to creating pressure groups that would sensitize the legislators. What shape and form this extraordinary legislation would take, nobody could wager. But that's the point. Even if Sri Lanka has to evolve fresh ideas on how to legislate against police brutality, it needs to be done. But our society has more important issues to flog - more important godheads to worship at. Perhaps another Richard Soysa (or a plump NGO head) needs to be tortured by the police for Sri Lanka to wake up to the continuous horrors of police brutality.

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