Sri Lanka: Vulnerable groups pay the price for militarisation of COVID-19 response

  Image: (c)Shehan Gunasekara/Daily FT

29/10/2020

On 15 October, the Sri Lankan authorities imposed a curfew in parts of Katunayake Free Trade Zone (KFTZ) after hundreds of workers at the Brandix apparel factory in Minuwangoda tested positive for COVID-19. More than 1,500 people connected to the garment factory have been infected with COVID-19 since 9 October, and four factories, Chiefway Katunayake, Next Manufacturing, Naigai and Okaya Lanka, shut down.

Many KFTZ workers migrate from rural areas in Sri Lanka, and live in overcrowded boarding houses with minimum facilities. Some of these also accommodate pregnant women and mothers with their children.

Military-led response subjects workers to greater threat and indignities

In an attempt to control the spread of COVID-19, the military was called in on 11 October to round-up workers, late at night and early in the morning, to forcibly take them to makeshift quarantine centres. According to the media and civil society reports, soldiers raided the workers’ boarding rooms, telling them they had five to 10 minutes to pack their bags. The workers boarded crowded buses and headed for quarantine centres, which were not established according to procedures established by law.

Trade unions and human rights activists spoke out that during this course of action by military, the workers were not informed where the centre was located nor provided with protective masks. They weren’t allowed to speak at all and children were separated from their mothers. When the workers arrived at the centre, they were given some food, which many workers found inedible.

The facility itself had not been cleaned, toilets were flooded and unsanitary, and no Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests had been conducted on any of the workers upon their admission to the centre. In short, the military-led response to the threat of infection ended up subjecting the workers to greater threat of contagion as well as numerous indignities.

Responses to pandemic must comply with human rights principles

A more sensible way forward is to ensure that responses to the pandemic comply with human rights principles, especially as we hear of more accounts of inappropriate or heavy-handed military behaviour in reaction to this public health crisis.

The manner in which the Sri Lankan Government and the military have handled the recent outbreak among the workers has been deeply troubling. The lack of clear information provided to the workers, unsafe transportation, unsanitary quarantine facilities established without a legal basis, and failing to conduct tests prior to loading workers onto buses and upon admission to the centre, and absence of judicial oversight is in clear violation of basic COVID-19 regulations adhered by the Government. At the heart of all these problems lies a heavily militarised and politicised COVID-19 response.

Heavily militarised and politicised COVID-19 response

In March, Sri Lanka’s first case of COVID-19 was reported. The Government set up the National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) to prevent the spread of the disease.

However, instead of putting a medical professional or civil officer in charge of the Centre, the Rajapaksa Government picked Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, an alleged war criminal, to head the NOCPCO. Silva was the commander of the 58th Division of the Sri Lankan Army, which was identified by multiple UN investigatory bodies as having been involved in the commission of serious crimes and human rights violations during the last stages of Sri Lanka’s decades-long armed conflict which ended in 2009.

President Rajapaksa has also appointed retired and currently serving military officials to other key public sector positions including the Secretary of the Ministry of Health, the Director General of the Disaster Management Centre, and the Director General of the Customs Department.

After delaying for several weeks, a countrywide curfew was suddenly declared on 20 March without adequate steps to supply essentials goods and medicines to the people. The President also gave full powers to the Police to arrest people for violating curfew.

Over 60,000 people have been arrested for alleged curfew violations and although most them had been released on bail, the Police stated that they will be prosecuted on the advice of the Attorney General’s Department when the normal Court proceedings begin once the COVID-19 epidemic is over.

The violators can be prosecuted in a Magistrate’s Court and if convicted, can be imprisoned up to six months and fined up to Rs. 2,000. Lawmakers argued about the curfew’s legality, but it continued to be enforced in several regions, as part of the State’s coronavirus containment strategy.

The military may have to conduct law enforcement functions during a state of emergency such as public health crisis. As the UN human rights guidance provided, the military may only be deployed in a law enforcement context for limited periods and specifically defined circumstances.

When the military conducts law enforcement functions, they should be subordinate to civilian authority and accountable under civilian law, and are subject to standards applied to law enforcement officials under international human rights law.

However, in Sri Lanka now, there is no public discussion or transparency about the actions and decisions of the military during the COVID-19 response. All decisions related to the public health crisis are being made by the NOCPCO with Silva at the helm, without any Judicial or Parliamentary oversight, nor any public institutional processes informing those decisions and holding him accountable to them.

Vulnerable ethnic and religious groups acutely affected

Vulnerable ethnic and religious groups are acutely affected by the militarisation of the public health response. Tamil organisations and politicians have continuously called for the demilitarisation of the north-east. Having the military to oversee the public health policy and to act as the State’s first responders also normalises military occupation, exacerbates the existing ethnic divides, and further deteriorates human rights in Sri Lanka.

Most of the quarantine facilities are located in the north and east of the country, which still remain occupied by the Sri Lankan military. Despite local concerns about locating quarantine centres in areas already subject to ethnic and political tensions, the Government ignored the local concerns and turned schools and educational establishments in the Northern and Eastern Provinces into the quarantine centres.

Furthermore, Muslims in Sri Lanka, have also complained about inappropriate State policies and violations of their freedom to worship. The Government-mandated compulsory cremations for Muslims who had died after contracting the virus goes against Islamic burial practices and World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines.

While certain limitations on human rights may be undertaken to confront the public health crisis, such limitations, in keeping with the Siracusa Principles, they must be for a specific public health purpose, established by law, non-discriminatory and necessary and proportionate to addressing public health.

Sri Lanka’s involvement of the military at every level, with limited parliamentary and civilian oversight, raises serious human rights and rule of law concerns. Public health officials have expressed disagreements with medical authorities in terms of statistics and strategy for managing the outbreak.

The Government will only be able to implement successful public health measures and maintain public support and confidence when its policies in response to the pandemic are evidence-based, human rights compliant, and transparent.

(The writer is Legal Advisor at the International Commission of Jurists, Asia & the Pacific Programme.)

 The Covid Mask, An Emperor With No Cloths & Colonialism Redux? Whose ‘Free & Open Indo-Pacific’?

By Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake –OCTOBER 28, 2020

Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake

The Covid-19 narrative has colonized the world, attacking and shutting down global and local economy and society, as well as, trade and transport systems with a face-mask as its telling symbol. 

In strategically located Sri Lanka more people have died of random elephant attacks, or in car accidents than from Covid-19, which has claimed a grand total of eighteen (18) lives in the past year in this island of 22 million people. However, livelihoods, education and good governance including the right to protest have been dealt a massive blow by the Covid 19 narrative that has whipped up fear-psychosis and resulted in lockdowns recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), and its partners in crime.

Beneath the Covid-19 mask, however, there are signs of a full-blown hybrid Cold War unfolding in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), as United States Secretary, Mike Pompeo pivots with all the pomp and circumstance of visiting royalty to South and Southeast Asia this week, seemingly to re-set and re-boot Euro-American colonialism. Secretary Pompeo, a former head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), accompanied by Mark Esper, Secretary for Defense was in New Delhi on the first leg of his four-day IOR trip that also includes visits to Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia, which recently refused to let US maritime surveillance, P8-Posidon spy planes, land and refuel in its territory. As Dino Patti Djalal, a former Indonesian ambassador to the US, said the “very aggressive anti-China policy” of the US had unnerved Indonesia and the region. 

Indeed, there are increasingly good arguments to suggest that a Third World War has commenced beneath the Covid-19 banner, and narrative to distract the global media and public, and recolonize the Global South, by rebooting a hollowed out and imploding Euro-American economic imperialism that is increasingly challenged by the rise of China: The Asian and Indian Ocean region has emerged as the economic and technology powerhouse and growth center of the world. Hence, there has been an increase in the number and intensity of proxy wars on going at this time in Asia and Africa – particularly along the borders of China, Iran, India, and Russia, and the Indian Ocean Region, which is considered the world’s trade and energy “superhighway”, where Sri Lanka commands a strategic perch.

 Sri Lanka is also located at an Undersea Data Cable (UDC), ‘choke point’, essential to control for strategic cyberwar and data tapping. Simultaneously in a classic colonial and hybrid war strategy, internal religious and ethnic identity politics have been increasingly weaponized by external parties in the highly multicultural and multi-religious Asian world – a tried and tested tactic in hybrid war. The Trump regime seems to be inciting violence and spoiling for a war between Asian giants, China and India, to make a debt-strapped and imploding Euro-American-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), ‘Atlantic axis’ look “great again”.

Preparations for full on ‘hybrid war’ in the IOR had been on-going for a while: Strategically located Sri Lanka witness staged suicide attacks against coastal churches and sea-front luxury hotels at Easter Sunday last year. The attacks were mysteriously claimed by the Islamic State leader (ISIS), as the US and IS seemed to pivot in unison to the IOR on Easter Sunday to set up Caliphate bases. 

A recent book titled “IS is US’ may help explain the mysterious timing of events and US and IS movements in the IOR in recent times. After all, there was no prior history or motive for violence among Muslims and Christians, both minority communities in Buddhist and Hindu majority Sri Lanka. The April 2019 attacks on coastal churches and hotels, were directed at the country’s economy and society, a tried and tested tactic in colonial and hybrid wars whereby ethnic and religious identities are weaponized in order to divide, distract and rule colonized populations.  

The Easter attacks that killed 250 happened a month before US Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan’s planned trip to Sri Lanka last year to sign the controversial Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact (MCC), and to discuss the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the Government of Sri Lanka, which would enable American boots on the ground to protect Sri Lanka from IS terrorists. That trip was aborted however, amidst protests against the MCC and SOFA agreements, as well as, Cardinal Malcom Ranjith’s statement that the Easter Sunday attacks that killed 256 people were caused by foreign actors and networks that profit from chaos and sell arms. 

Covid curfews clearly have other than health benefits for hapless natives in Indian Ocean colonies: This time around, citizens in strategically located Sri Lanka have been well prepared and placed in a Covid-19 curfew with the “Second Wave” narrative, to coincide with Mr. Pompeo’s visit. Behind his stars and stripes face mask Mr. Pompeo would certainly be talking about the MCC and SOFA agreements with the powers that be in Colombo unimpeded by noisy protestors or obdurate Buddhist monks. An initial partial lockdown of the citizens of Sri Lanka came into effect after a special US Air Force plane with a special delegation landed ahead of Pompeo’s visit, despite the country’s airports being sealed due to Covid-19 for months. Train services have been cancelled, and the parliament is being sanitized during Pompeo’s visit, while and a full country-wide curfew is threatened in the island.

The curfew does not make any policy sense if we follow the local and national data for Sri Lanka. According to World Health Organization seasonal flu kills more than 7000 people annually in Sri Lanka, so Covid-19 which has claimed 15 lives is far milder than seasonal flu, and Covid-19 PCR tests have recorded a very high incidence of false positives, suggesting that the data is being rigged. But Sri Lanka is increasingly in the cross-hairs of big power rivalry as a new great game unfolds in the Indian Ocean region and the island’s economy, society and democracy are once again battered by the much hyped Covid-19 second wave narrative, that has targeted global trade and transport systems. The democratic right to protest has been hardest hit by the Covid 19 narrative-infodemic and militarized response, 

But as Pompeo pivots to the Indian Ocean region, the world seems to be pirouetting away from a declining Euro-American-Atlantic axis towards the rising Asian and Indian Ocean Region (IOR) led by China, although Hindu nationalist, Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, seems increasingly in lock step with the Christian fundamentalist Trump regime, as world religions are weaponized, amidst a propaganda infodemic against China and other emerging Asian economies (BRICS). 

An Emperor with no cloths? A Celebrity virus and a nightmare narrative

There is the virus, and then there is the (media) narrative: Or perhaps, it was the other way round? Which came first to the colonies and the Global South, where bio-political and medical ‘knowledge’ and information is consumed rather than produced? The fear psychosis inducing narrative or the virus? 

Significant differences in Covid-19 Data among countries; especially between countries in the Global South and northern hemisphere that indicate the need for country and region specific policy responses have been ignored: Countries like Sri Lanka with fewer than 20 deaths have been subject to socially, politically and economically devastating curfews on the instructions of the United Nation’s World Health Organization (WHO). 

Curiously, Covid-19 has infected more celebrities per capita than any other virus in human history – from Prince Charles, Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, to Ronaldo, to Tom Hanks in Hollywood where it all began, and thence to Bollywood’s “Bachans in Covid Hospital” show – for the grand global “second wave” narrative. However, there is increasing evidence that while the world focusses on the vaccine that would enable big pharmaceutical giants hit the jackpot, PCR tests deliver very high false positives, as doctors in the Netherlands, Ireland and US have pointed out. In Tanzania a Papaw and Goat tested positive for Covid-19! All this raises a question about the data and the panicdemic epidemiology models generated by Johns Hopkins University which has known links to the CIA and was involved in the infamous Covid-19 Event 201 Pandemic simulation exercise with the Gates Foundation and WHO. 

Read More

 Save Central Bank of SL and clean Colombo University bogus Economics Dept and cancel Emiritus Prof position given to robber WD Lakshman..!

Investigative Journalist Forum

(Lanka-e-News - 30.Oct.2020, 1.30AM)  Check Colombo University Arts Faculty Economics Dept. recruitments and promotion to Professor positions and sack all illegal recruitments and recover salary got by these Lakshman’s henchmen.

This investigative article says why WD Lakshman (WDL) considers as No.1 Robber, Criminal and deal maker, therefore, has to save SANASA campus from his hands before he destroys it (it already family and henchmen tree) and penalize for the wrongdoing during his Colombo University regime. Some of the criminal works of WD Lakshman (WDL):

1)     Lakshman’s wife (Kalyani) caught (This happened in the 1997-99 period) by the Education Dept while she was giving a false birth certificate to extend her service. She was a teacher in Education dept and the final appointment was a Principal Devi Balika before her retirement.

2)     His first son entered into Kelaniya University Government medical faculty without Sri Lankan A/L by using a foreign passport. This is a deprivation of chance to Sri Lankan poor girl or boy who passed A/L through the right path. Later he entered the government medical service also.

3)     His second son entered to his own dept (Colombo University Econ) and received a bogus first class degree and recruited to the same dept and by violating all government circulars and sent aboard for Ph.D. This son's best friends’ also recruited to the same dept as lecturers.

4)     Second son’s uncle (SMP Senanayaka) also got into the same dept and he violated bond with ARTI (Now HRTI) and recruited to this family dept. By using W.D. Lakshman's underhand foreign-funded project (UC/ISS) sent Senanayake to the UK  to get a Ph.D. even after 60 years of age.

5)     Another catcher (Sunil) recruited from NIBM he also violated bond with NIBM and recruited to this family and henchmen dept.

6)     The Netherlands and Japanese foreign aids robbed and misused for personal gains by Lakshman, his relatives and henchmen openly. He misused these foreign projects to help his sex partners and people in his henchmen cycle. Another famous foreign robber (Sri Lankan origin Netherlands citizen – Howard Nichalos) also work in this UC/ISS project and misuse this foreign aids for his own and associates’ benefits and for his sex workers benefits.

7)     An unknown number of UG and PG degrees sold and gave to own network people and relatives. Evidence is there to prove that he sold degrees to foreigners with help of womanized Registrar (This Registrar Mr. Jinasena,  gave over 100 non-academic positions and promotions to many girls after having sex with them) in that time. Now this Registrar (Jinasena) is a lawyer. His law license must be canceled. Even Lakshman erased names from degree master book and included new names by using special inks imported from a foreign country. He erased death people (degree awardees) names for this business and inserted the new names and issuing this degree certificates he made billions.

8)     Earned as much as money from tender manipulation by Lakshman while he was working as VC two times (1994-99) for Colombo University.

9)     All the lecturers’ recruitments are done in outdoor connection to his family dept (Econ Dept on Arts faculty). Lakshman does not have a good school education and he studied in a very small school in the Southern part. Therefore, he likes as much as dis-robed people and monks and most of his staff recruits are these dis-robed guys and finally fake monk (Rev. W. Wimalarathna) also recruited through back-door connections. This monk is very greedy for money.

10)  Lakshman’s daughter also given free sociology degree from Colombo University Arts faculty and recruited as a Lecturer to same University by disregarding all well-qualified applications. For this cover-ups gave by many in Sociology Dept and they got many rewards for this during this period.

11)  Finally, he himself became Emeritus in this family dept. and still, all the decisions in this family dept are taking by him. Because his henchmen and sex workers (Lecturers) are now running this dept.

12)  This no.1 mask man (Lakshman) has to bring the FCID and CID and has to penalized and should be in jail for rest of his life and sack all his recruitments and close his family dept in Arts faculty in Colombo University.

13)  All the staff recruitments in SANASA campus was also done in outdoor connection manners. See Sumanasiri other fake Profs without Ph.D. or any single publications in ISI/SCOPUS journals how he became a Professor. His Professor application evaluated by famous robber Lakshman.

14)  Now, this Lakshman and his robber clan (fake profs Ranjith Bandara, Sirimal Abeyrathne, Sumanasiri, and others) got a big contract from former corruptive president Mahinda and their duty is to convince people about the incoming great economic crisis and preaching Sri Lanka will be over and toppling Ranil’s government. They already started the first meeting of this contract by using fake Ph.D. holder Gunuruwan in this family Dept.

15)  Educate people about this criminal Lakshman and his all underhand deals and not to listen to him or his corruptive clan. Actually now he should be in Prison not the VC position in SANASA campus.

16)  All the Lecturers for this Colombo University family dept (Econ) recruited through outdoor connections. Some are servants, sex workers, henchmen, relatives, friends’ and own sons or daughters. Some people he put into other academic depts because they translated foreign authors books into Sinhala and this man published them as his own books. See his books all of them are English translations. All these translations did by his slave lecturers for various gains.

17)  Lakshman does not have any publications in ISI or SCOPUS indexed journals then how he became a professor. He helped all his henchmen to be professors by sitting professor application evaluation committees of them. Actually, UGC has to penalized for this mistake.

18)  This man completely destroyed Sri Lankan Economic education with his henchmen. Therefore in Colombo University Arts faculty, this family dept must be closed with immediate effect.

19)  Under the Mahinda regime, this person is in many economic committees and advisory boards and gave all backups for corruptive Mahinda regime and made billions. His henchmen became Chairmen in many government Institutions and earned as much as and destroyed all these good Institutions. Examples: Ranjith Bandara in SLFI and Gunuruwan (Famous Joker and boaster who does not have a real Ph.D. degree or any Economics first degree) in Railway, etc.

20)  With immediate effect, WD Lakshman’s Emeritus professorship must be canceled and he should be jailed. This Emeritus is proposed by all his outdoor connected henchmen Lecturers in Econ dept.

21)  Unqualified S. Vidanagama kept as Head in Econ Dept in many years to get done all dirt works of WD Lakshman.

22)  Many examples exist with Colombo University to prove how WD Lakshman recruited Lecturers in the Colombo University Arts faculty: Sex workers, henchmen, sons, and daughters of friends and relatives.

23)  WD Lakshman's main henchman in SANASA campus is double game player Mr. Sumanasiri Liyanage. Sumanasiri does not have any qualification to be a professor. He does not have a Ph.D. or any single publication in ISI/Scopus level journal and the only qualification is henchman to Lakshman. Laksman gave him Deanship in this campus and now girls beware of this notorious womanized man. He does not have any family life.

24)  All these crimes are a tip of ice burg he did while he was in Colombo University and SANASA. Uncountable many are there. Now SANASA campus is day time robbery, family business and sex farm under this man rule.

25)  Today no one can trust SANASA degrees because it comes from these type of criminal, low quality and unethical people’s hands.

26)  Finally, we found that Colombo University forcibly resigned first VC is this criminal VC. Because H.E President Chandrika Kumaratunga's time, she said this man to resign because of his involvement with many corruptive deals. Such a person cannot be work again in the same University and become Emeritus Professor what so ever. How can this type of low-level mask man run SANASA campus with his henchmen?

27)  This criminal (WD Lakshman) gave the bad recommendation to become Economics professors for many of low level his own sex workers, henchmen and pimps. He did this because many Universities appointed this joker to evaluate professor application of many people. Even UGC still appointing this joker for many committees.

28)  How Sirimal Abeyrathne became Economics Professor with Sociology Ph.D.? How Gunuruwan became Economics Senior Lecturer with science general degree? How Rev. W Wimalarathne became Lecturer with the second class lower pass? How Lakshman’s second son’s friends became Lecturers in that Econ Dept? How Lakshman’s second son got a first class pass in his own Economics dept? Lakshman had changed all the marks of the son and gave the first class in the wrong way? How his (Lakshman’s) daughter became Lecturer in same University Sociology Dept under full coverage from Sociology Dept? How his first son entered to Kelaniya University medical faculty without Sri Lankan A/L by using a foreign passport? How his second son sent aboard violating all UGC circulars through Colombo University public money? Many general science degree holders recruited to this Econ Dept by this world-class criminal WD Lakshman. Need full audit query about this man.

Appoint Parliament Committee on Colombo University Economics Dept. appointments, fake professor promotions for henchmen and his all ill doings during and now in Colombo University. At least without Economics Second upper-class pass no one cannot be a Lecturer. But in this dept, many have lower class degrees, general science degrees which are not related to Economics. Cancel Emeritus Professorship given to this world-class robber WD Lakshman.

Investigative Journalist Forum in Sri Lanka

cc: Sectary of President

---------------------------
by     (2020-10-29 20:06:14)

  JMOs and Police conducting forced anal and vaginal examinations on LGBT people

The World Medical Association has called on all medical professionals to stop conducting the exams, saying that  it is deeply disturbed by the complacity of medical personnel in these  non-voluntary and unscientific examinations, including the preparation  of medical reports that are used in trials to convict men and  transgender women of consensual conduct

 

30 October 2020 

The Justice Ministry employed Judicial Medical Officers (JMOs) and Sri Lanka Police have been accused of conducting degrading anal and vaginal virginity tests on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (“LGBT”) Sri Lankans.   
In an investigation done by our special correspondent, we can confirm that Judicial Medical Officers and the Police have subjected LGBT people to anal and vaginal examinations by doctors to prove their homosexuality when prosecuting them in Court.   
Over the last 3 years lawyers have represented several LGBT people who were subject to forced anal and vaginal examinations by JMOs and the Police. In all the cases referenced, there were no witnesses to any alleged sexual activity and all the accused were fully clothed at the time of arrest.   

Gay men whipped with wires

In one case, two of the accused were whipped with wires by the police. They were kept in remand custody for several days and only allowed one two-minute telephone call each.   

National STD/AIDS Control Programme (NSACP) revealing HIV results in Court

LGBT people have also been forced to undergo HIV tests without their consent and results made public in court. The NSACP, which is subject to strict guidelines on patient confidentiality, violated Health Ministry guidelines by publicly disclosing to the Court, the HIV test results of gay men being prosecuted for consensual relationships.   

Transgender men and cis women subject to vaginal examintions

In another case involving a transgender man and a cis woman, the JMO inserted his fingers inside both of their vaginas. The JMO had not sought their permission before he inserted his fingers and when they screamed out in pain asked whether it had hurt.  
In that case, doctors also tried to take photographs of their bodies but were denied by the accused. They were then subject to a further physical examination in front of other male doctors and nurses at the hospital by an Obstetrician & Gynaecologist. When they pleaded with the doctor not to repeat the vaginal examination as it hurt, the doctor had laughed and said that he would light a firecracker inside their vaginas instead.   

What are anal and vaginal exams?

Forced anal or vaginal exams, which try to find “proof” of homosexual conduct, often involve doctors or other medical personnel inserting their fingers, and sometimes other objects, into the anus or vagina of the accused in an attempt to determine whether the person has engaged in receptive anal or vaginal intercourse. The examinations are degrading, lack any scientific basis and violate all medical ethics.   

Anal and vaginal exams have been discredited by world bodies and banned in several countries

The Independent Forensic Experts Group (IFEG), composed of forensic medicine specialists from around the world, has condemned forced anal examinations.   
The World Health Organisation has also denounced anal and vaginal exams as a form of violence and torture.   
In November 2014, the World Health Organisation also stated that, “There is no place for virginity (or ‘two-finger’) testing; it has no scientific validity.”  

Doctors must stop conducting the exams

The World Medical Association has called on all medical professionals to stop conducting the exams, saying that it is “deeply disturbed by the complacity of medical personnel in these non-voluntary and unscientific examinations, including the preparation of medical reports that are used in trials to convict men and transgender women of consensual conduct.” The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) and thereby all Sri Lankan Doctors, are members of the World Medical Association.  

Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) and the SLMA silent on forced anal and vaginal exams by doctors

In 2017, following revelations of anal exams being conducted in Tunisia, The National Council of the Medical Order in Tunisia issued a statement calling for all doctors to cease conducting forced anal and genital examinations.   
The SLMC and SLMA are yet to issue a similar statement at the time of writing, despite revelations of these examinations being made over a week ago.   
The JMOs who carried out the examinations in Sri Lanka are fully qualified medical doctors, employed by the Justice Ministry, and are bound by standards of medical ethics. Their complete disregard of medical ethics in conducting these examinations calls into question the standards of the medical profession in Sri Lanka.   

Examinations violate Sri Lankan and international law

Article 11 of Sri Lanka’s Constitution states that “No person shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Such cruel treatment is also prohibited under Sri Lanka’s Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Act No. 22 of 1994 and can carry up to 10 years imprisonment.   
The United Nations’ Committee Against Torture has condemned the use of forced anal and vaginal examinations and has called for countries to outlaw the practice. Until recently, only 7 countries were confirmed to still conduct this degrading examination. Sri Lanka now joins a blacklist that includes Zambia, Uganda, Cameroon, Kenya, Egypt, Turkmenistan and Lebanon in conducting these examinations.   

LGBT people are routinely persecuted in Sri Lanka

Case and police records from 2016 evidence the routine imprisonment and prosecution of LGBT people in Sri Lanka. In the last few years, Sri Lankan police have raided hotels, private homes and other locations to arrest people for offences including consensual same-sex conduct. A police performance report from 2018 indicates that 33 people were arrested and prosecuted for “homosexuality” in 2016 and 9 people were prosecuted in 2018, following such raids. The grave crimes extract of the Sri Lanka police show that potentially several hundred LGBT people are being arrested and prosecuted by the police every year for “unnatural offences” even for consensual relations.   

“Homosexuality” not an offence under Sri Lankan law

There is no offence of “homosexuality” under Sri Lankan law. Police use Sections 365 and 365A of the Sri Lankan Penal Code to harass, arrest, torture and now anally and vaginally probe LGBT Sri Lankans.   
Sections 365 and 365A of the Penal Code prohibit “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” and “gross indecency between persons”. The vagueness of this offence is commonly exploited in Sri Lanka to criminalise same-sex relations between consenting adults, including in private. Sri Lankan police also have used the “gross indecency” offence to arrest young heterosexual couples for holding hands and showing affection in public parks. Recently, more than 100 heterosexual couples were subject to a mass arrest in Anuradhapura.   

Transgender persons are protected under Sri Lankan law

Sri Lankan law recognises the rights of transgender persons and a transgender person can legally change their gender identity. Despite a legal process for gender recognition in Sri Lanka, transgender persons continue to be harassed by police or police refuse to recognise their gender recognition certificate. They are also often charged under vague offences in the Penal Code that prohibit “cheating by impersonation”.  

Discrimination against LGBT persons is unconstitutional in Sri Lanka

The arrests, torture, anal and vaginal probing and prosecution of LGBT Sri Lankans is unconstitutional.   
In 2014, the Attorney General stated that discrimination against LGBT people is against Sri Lanka’s Constitution and that LGBT people are protected under the right to equality. The Attorney General further held that sections 365 and 365A of the Penal Code cannot be enforced in a discriminatory manner against LGBT people. The Attorney General repeated these statements in both 2017 and 2019. In 2016, the Supreme Court questioned whether it is the role of the State to police what consensual adults do in private.   
Despite these regular statements by the country’s Attorney General, evidence is clear that discrimination and torture of LGBT people by Sri Lanka’s justice system is systematic and remains unaddressed.   
The shocking investigation by our special correspondent and exposed in this newspaper into the ongoing persecution and abuse of LGBT Sri Lankans by the police and medical doctors have caused alarm not only in Sri Lanka’s LGBT community but also among lawyers and medical professionals.   

Doctors call for the practice to end

Dr. Tush Wickramanayake, Family Physician, called the exams a “blatant violation of basic Human Rights…and a direct violation of the Hippocratic Oath”. She said that the Oath requires doctors to “protect a patient’s privacy and to do no harm based on any discriminatory basis.” She agreed that the examinations are a form of torture and that both the SLMC and SLMA must condemn the practice.
   

Paediatrician, Dr. Nathashi Wijesundera said she found the actions of the JMOs a “violation of…human rights, ethically troublesome, medically immoral and going against everything that the Hippocratic Oath requires medical practitioners to abide by”. She emphasised the “long lasting physical, emotional, psychological and social challenges LGBTQI persons face following such examinations” and that the “impact of such complex trauma and the dehumanising of these individuals… needs to be an urgent issue that is addressed.” Dr. Wijesundera said that as a paediatrician, she “strongly advocates for and encourages all young people to have autonomy over their body and choices. This is especially true for the work my colleagues and I do with LGBTQI youth, who face discrimination from their own families, friends and wider society.”   

Lawyers sound alarm

Attorney-at-Law and criminal defence lawyer Mahesh Senaratne told the Daily Mirror and Lankadeepa that “the entire thing is based on the misinterpretation that homosexuality is illegal in Sri Lanka. It’s based on prejudice and social stigma.” He emphasised that the “entire issue with these examinations is that it is intended to prove something that is not a crime technically.” He described the examinations as “an invasion of a person’s body without their permission. It is incredible, invasive and often leads to abuse.” Mahesh was clear that such examinations amount to torture. “These examinations are conducted because of cases brought forward by social prejudice. It’s crucial to remember that there is a difference between a person who has been raped being examined and a person alleged to have committed an “unnatural” offence being examined.”  
Attorney-at-Law Binoli Barsenbach described the examinations as “brutal, inhuman” and that “no man or woman should be subject to such torture”. She also said that “not only have their rights been violated, I think this is rape!”.

  

Another lawyer, who wished to remain anonymous described the practice as “torture and inhuman, and degrading treatment” and that it should be “abolished”. She emphasised that the practice was not new and that the police “asks for it knowing full well that it has no relevance to the case.”   
Lawyers also raised alarm that Courts were even considering such examinations. An Attorney stated that “Courts should apply their mind to whether a medical report of this nature is strictly necessary (and not routine) especially in the context of invasive examinations… It’s concerning that these types of reports are considered routine even when there is no merit to a case and has no prima facie bearing.” 
 

Equality Law Director of iProbono, Aritha Wickramasinghe described the revelations as “shocking”. He said that “only perverts would want to forcefully probe the anus’ and vaginas of LGBT people. This is not only grave sexual abuse being committed against LGBT people by doctors and the police, but also is State sponsored rape.” He described the situation as absurd and outrageous. “Police want to prosecute LGBT people for consensual relationships by getting doctors to forcefully insert their fingers inside our anus’ and vaginas. It is very clear here who has committed the crime, and it is not us.”