State Violence in Sri Lanka - World Organisation Against Torture

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State Violence in SRI LANKA
4. Compensation
There have been a few (non criminal) cases from the Supreme Court, which
demonstrate an effort to deal with compensation on the basis of the seriousness
of the crime of torture, a gross human rights violation. In such cases, the
greater compensation is now being granted. However, in the majority of the
cases, compensation granted is not proportional to the violation of rights
guaranteed under article 7 of ICCPR. Most awards are between US$ 100 to
US$ 500. In some cases, even when the victim dies from his/her injuries, the
amount awarded is only around US$ 250 (for example, the case of Josephine
Mary Kanmany on behalf of Anthonypille Jesudasen, SCFR 807/ 1999). Act
No 22 of 1994 states that the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is part of the law in Sri
Lanka. However, the Supreme Court has transposed this in their judgments
on violations of Article 11 of the Constitution, which is the same as article 7
of the ICCPR.
Moreover, the state does not yet pay much attention to the trauma associated
with torture. Facilities to treat trauma and provide adequate rehabilitation of
torture victims are practically non-existent.
5. Assessment of main reasons for police torture
As mentioned above, the major cause for the use of police torture as it exists
today is the breakdown of the police system during the period from the early
1970's to up to about 2002. As a result, the following things have happened:
a. Breakdown of the command structure of the police: higher ranking police
officers are perceived as being either inefficient or corrupt;
b. OICs at police stations, in fact the real authorities within the police station,
are incompetent, inefficient and often accused of being corrupt;
c. Lack of training in proper methods of criminal investigations and lack of
forensic facilities. In such circumstances, torture is perceived as both a legitimate
and necessary means of investigation;
d. Increase of crime and public pressure to deal with crimes. Since police officers
have no real capacity to deal with crimes and are unable to find the real
culprits, they often engage in torture just to find someone to blame and ease