Police abuses surge amid Covid-19 pandemic :HRW

Sri Lanka’s police are increasingly killing and abusing people under cover of the Covid-19 pandemic measures and an anti-drug campaign, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today.

Recent police abuses reported in the media include alleged extrajudicial killings, torture, and arbitrary detention. The government should restore independent oversight of the police and meaningfully investigate and prosecute alleged police abuses. International partners, such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the United Kingdom’s Police Scotland, should suspend assistance programs until there is progress on accountability and reform.

“Sri Lanka’s police seem intent on building on their past record of serious abuses, instead of cleaning up their act,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The UN, UK, and others working with Sri Lankan law enforcement should recognize that without the political will to reform on Sri Lanka’s part, their engagement risks appearing to endorse abusive agencies.”

Since May 2021, the police have been implicated in several unlawful deaths, including some linked to disproportionate and abusive enforcement of Covid-19 quarantines.

On May 17, police allegedly stopped D. Sunil Indrajith, 49, for violating a Covid-19 quarantine in Weligama and ordered a civilian police employee to beat him. He collapsed in the road and was killed by a passing bus. The incident was captured on CCTV, and two policemen and two others were subsequently arrested.

On June 3, Chandran Vidushan, 22, died in police custody shortly after being arrested in Batticaloa. His family alleged that police tied him to a tree outside their house and severely beat him with poles, then took him away. The authorities said that he died of a drug overdose.

On June 6, Mohamed Ali, 42, died after police arrested him for an alleged quarantine violation in Panadura, near Colombo. The police reported that he was fatally injured jumping from a moving police jeep. Ali’s wife alleged that the police beat him to death. Two policemen are reportedly facing a disciplinary procedure for “negligence.”

Police abuses have also been linked to a government crackdown on “the drug menace.” Police fatally shot Melon Mabula on May 11, and Tharaka Perera Wijesekera, on May 12. Both were in police custody for alleged involvement in organized crime, where lawyers and others had warned that their lives were in danger. In a statement the Bar Association of Sri Lanka said that both cases “have all the hallmarks of extra-judicial killings.”