When Green villains go DPL on torture

Light Refractionsby Lucien Rajakarunanayake

"UNP to brief diplomats on torture killing" - (headline)

A friend of mine abroad who read this news item sent me a message that the next thing the UNP would do is to brief diplomats on "Party Double Crossing". I informed him this had already been done, with Ranil complaining to India about it.

On the matter of torture, the truth is that there's no party or person who can brief the diplomatic community or anyone else on the subject better than the UNP and its leader. In fact it can give the Pentagon a few ideas by which US troops can outdo the torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners practised at Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has put most Americans, other than Donald Rumsfeld, to shame.

Wrong man

The alleged torture of a businessman wrongly arrested by the Police, by prisons officers at the Kuruwita Remand Prison, indeed demands condemnation and swift action to punish its perpetrators. But, for the UNP to be loudest in condemnation of it and their decision to canvass the matter with the diplomatic community and international fora is akin to a criminal explaining to the world one's expertise in crime, and also claiming to be holier than thou.

I did a fast memory rewind to 1988/89, when Ranil Wickremesinghe was the Leader of the House and held an important portfolio, and guess who I was reminded of? It was that young lawyer, Wijedasa Liyanaaratchchi who was dispatched to the other world after a great deal of torture. The records said he had been arrested at Hambantota and transferred to Peliyagoda and then to Sapugaskanda, at the request of - guess who - the present UNP leader.

This also reminds one of a place named Batalanda, in the then electoral district of Ranil Wickremesinghe, better known at that time as the villain of Batalanda, for all what took place at the torture chamber there. And that's where Wijedasa Liyanaratchchi was taken to be put through the UNP's bloody torture mill and given an exit visa to the other world, where he must still be suffering from all the torture over here. No doubt the UNP and Ranil Wickremesinghe will be able to enlighten the diplomatic community about torture in State custody.

Backward to the gruesome days of July 1983, when the UNP was at its height of parliamentary power and JRJ had decided to roll up the electoral map after his contemptible referendum to extend the life of parliament. It was the time of tragedy when the Tamil people were torched alive, their homes and shops looted and gutted by the green Storm Troopers of the Mathew Brigade. Black July it was called, the biggest ever pogrom against Tamils organised and manipulated by the UNP. I'm sure the UNP can explain to the diplomatic community how it went about doing all that damage to the lives and psyche of the Tamils, which in turn gave birth to the Tamil Tigers, with their own forms of violence and torture.

As for torture in prison, 1983 brings back bloody memories of what happened in two other prisons - at Welikada and Mahara. Can the UNP detail to the diplomatic community how it promoted prisons officers who were responsible for the most gruesome attacks on Tamil prisoners in these two prisons? These opponents of today's torture laid the groundwork for torture in custody when it rewarded those responsible for such dastardly torture that cried out to the heavens for redress to no avail.

If Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe and the UNP team who visit diplomats in Colombo, and various UN agencies against torture, have forgotten their facts, they can get some help by reading about all what happened in the two attacks on Tamil prisoners at Welikada and Mahara prisons, well documented by Rajan Hoole and the UTHR(J). But they won't need such help to jog their memories about crimes they were all privy to and decided to turn their eyes away from. What great devotees of Human Rights and determined opponents of torture must these green humbugs be who now shed political tears about torture in custody?

Past mistakes

Back on that bloody trail of torture I recalled another young lawyer, Kanchana Abeypala, who defended those falsely accused and arrested by the police led by that willing servant of state terror, Udugampola, so close to the UNP when Ranil was an important minister.

Kanchana Abeypala was only able to defend those who he could reach before being put out with agonising torture in those dark and terrible days.

He could do little for those who disappeared in the hell hole of state custody, or grabbed by the Green Tigers roaming the nights for prey. Yet, Kanchana Abeypala was doing too much good and he had to pay the ultimate price for it, tortured both in mind and body.

The UNP can certainly have a good time relating these stories of torture to the diplomatic community.

Tales of horror

The diplomats who listen to these tales will wish they never lived to here such tales of horror, but that's the lot of people whose task it is to lie abroad for their countries. Those who hear these horrific tales will certainly need more than a few stiff shots to keep themselves from retching at all the cruelty and torture laid before them.

There's no need for the UNP to talk of their expertise in tyre pyres where young men and women were disposed of, nor of how they put up the heads of their decapitated victims for display at public places, to teach others a gruesome lesson of all the torture that awaits if they are caught in the grip of the Green Villains to whom torture was mere bagatelle. Go on tell it all to the diplomatic community. I'm sure they have laid out their red carpets to receive the green delegations ready to brief then on torture killings.