Sri Lanka: Where is Wijeweera’s death certificate?

These are all political interpretations which do not matter in legal deliberations. For others Wijeweera is founder leader of the JVP, for my client he is her husband.

by Saman Indrajith-Jul 8, 2018

( July 8, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Attorney-at-Law Senaka Perera is the instructing lawyer in the Habeas Corpus action filed by WW Chitrangani Srimathie Wijeweera moving the Court of Appeal in search of the fate of her husband Rohana Wijeweera who had been taken into government custody in November 1989, and alleged to have been killed. Perera is the President of the Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners (CPRP) and is at the forefront of the campaign demanding justice for the prisoners killed during the Welikada Prison Massacre in 2012. He is also the National Organizer of the Centre for Sex Workers’ Rights. With his left-oriented outlook on the world, Perera believes that society should be changed and that process should be initiated by strengthening the suppressed – the underdog.

“Age-old struggle between the suppressor and the suppressed continues. I fight for the suppressed,” he told The Sunday Island during an interview in which he shared his opinions, views on various issues and reasons for supporting Wijeweera’s wife.

Extracts of the interview:

Q: Why now after some 30 years of the arrest and killing of Wijeweera have you come up with Habeas Corpus application? Why has your client had been waiting so long?

A: To answer that question I ask whether anyone considers we are doing something wrong. Why shouldn’t we? Shouldn’t we find the fate of Wijeweera or anyone went missing in government custody? We have been raising similar issues and attending to many similar cases during the recent past but there were no worries from any quarter. When we took up this case, everybody talks about it because the person involved in the issue is a founder leader of a political party. Don’t you think the spouse and children of Wijeweera should know his fate? There are rumours, news reports and even books had been written to the effect that Wijeweera had been killed. According to one version, he had been thrown into the crematorium in Borella alive. Apart from that there is a statement made by the then Minister of Defence Ranjan Wijeratne that Wijeweera was killed by HB Herath, another JVP member. But none of this is official. There should be a death certificate to legally accept that Wijeweera is dead. Till then he is officially alive. He was last known to be under government custody. If a person dies in government custody, then there should be a body – a corpus. It should be produced or at least a death certificate after an investigation should be produced before court.

Q: Who is bearing the costs of this action? Who is funding you?

A: So far nobody. We work on voluntary basis. But some former JVP members living in exile have contacted us and pledged that they would make some contributions as the case evolves.

Q: How come all this started at this time? How did you contact her?

A: She approached us and we accepted the case. Mrs. Wijeweera has seen our campaign for the rights of prisoners.

Q: Why has she waited so long? She was in protective custody of government but she could have done this many yearsback because even incarcerated prisoners have access to the lawyers, and she could have easily contacted a lawyer and file a habeas corpus action. What is the reason for her coming out now?

A: After she and the children of Wijeweera were taken into custody, the then government held her at Hammenheil Fort off Jaffna. They had no contact with outside world without going through the government forces. Thereafter the family was shifted to the Navy’s Gemunu Camp in Welisara. She said that she had no faith in past governments. After the incumbent government came to power, Mrs Wijeweera wrote two letters – one to the President of the country and another to the IGP seeking the help of their offices to find the fate of her husband. None of them were replied. So she has resorted to the next action available.

Q: How is she now?

A: She is 62 years old. Some of her children no longer live with her but have contacts. She is mentally sound but suffers from the loss of her husband.

Q: Majority of the respondents cited in your writ application are dead. Who would respond to you?

A: The government will. The government is duty bound as the offices which took Wijeweera into custody remain.

Q: Do not you think that this is a campaign seeking political advantage? It would certainly be embarrassing for many who were in the then government and holding high offices now.

A: Well…there could be such results. UNP which was in power then would certainly be blamed for extra-judicial killings and the JVP would be blamed for not doing anything to find the whereabouts of their abducted leader. JVP should have resorted to legal means decades back to ascertain the fate of Wijeweera. Even if our dog goes missing we search for it. But the JVP did nothing of that sort for three decades to find out the fate of their leader Wijeweera.

True, only close friends and family members of a person in custody can file a habeas corpus writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before a judge or into court, but the JVP could have done that. They had ample resources, time, opportunity and the reason to do so, but they did not. The JVP, which resorts to legal action over many other issues did nothing. There is a leftist ideology being dished out that we would get not the truth from the courts under a capitalist government. If it is so, then why the JVP goes to the FCID, Bribery Commission and other courts with complaints seeking justice?

This could be politically interpreted but we see nothing political here. Our task is to seek justice. We are to ensure that justice is done. Some others have described our attempt as one supportive of the Rajapaksas and I am contracted by them to this. They do so without knowing that I am the one who is fighting in courts and agitating outside with CPRP for the justice of victims of Prison Massacre 2012. It is an issue which has the potential of sending many Rajapaksas, at least one, behind bars for life.

These are all political interpretations which do not matter in legal deliberations. For others Wijeweera is founder leader of the JVP, for my client he is her husband. Just because there are political interpretations and twists to this move, she should not be deprived of her right to know the fate of her husband. Similarly, the family members of those had gone missing during the war. Thousands of mothers and wives in the North suffer every minute, every day thinking that their missing loved ones would come back to them. That suffering should be ended if we are to say we live in a democracy which upholds rule of law.

Those who fix the political label on us in this case, do not know that I work for the rights of prisoners in 29 prisons in the country. Prisoners are voiceless and have been forced to suffer the torture and harassment under officials. Only a few dared to open their mouths with our backing but some of them too have withdrawn their complaints in fear of reprisals. We work for the benefit of some other people abhorred by society and named as prostitutes. We call them sex workers. They have been forced to forget their rights because of their profession. As a society we are still semi-tribal and to change this we have to fight. That fight should be started from somewhere, someday, and it should be started by strengthening voice of the suppressed.

Courtesy: The Sunday Island