Untitled - International Commission of Jurists

2.1. First Information Reports
In all of these cases, the police carry out the investigations as a basis for moving the
alleged crime from Magistrates to High Court. The problem comes at the very first
stage of lodging a “first information” at the police station on the basis of which the
investigation commences. This necessary step entails enormous difficulties: the police
either refuse to record the complaint or record it only as a minor complaint, with the
consequence that inquiries are not conducted with the requisite urgency or
thoroughness. This is seen in almost all of the cases of enforced disappearances and
extrajudicial executions examined in this report.
During the ‘period of terror’, most of these people did not even have an
opportunity to lodge a complaint at a police station, a basic right that a citizen
is entitled to. During the sittings of this Commission, we repeatedly heard the
saying ‘when we went to a police station, we were chased away like dogs’. 450
The Embilipitiya Case would suffice to illustrate the extent of the problem. In its
Special (unpublished) Report on the Embilipitiya Case, the Western, Southern and
Sabaragamuwa Disappearances Commission found as established on the facts and
evidence placed before it: the refusal on the part of the police to record statements that
abductions had been carried out by army officers (sometimes identified by name, and
in some cases by reference to the particular regiment or battalion to which they were
attached) and that some of the abducted children had been seen in the particular army
detention camp and later “disappeared” without further trace. 451 In particular, the
refusal on the part of the police to record statements was seen by the Commission as a
common feature where it appeared that the complaint was against the police officer.
In many cases, the fact that the enforced disappearance was caused by state agents
themselves meant that the affected family members were naturally reluctant to lodge
complaints. 452
The presiding judge in the Embilipitiya High Court trial later observed during the
course of seminar proceedings in Colombo that the biggest obstacle that he faced in
regard to returning convictions against the accused was the statements made by the
parents, which had been fabricated and falsified by the police. He observed as
follows:
Immediately after their children had been kidnapped, most parents went to the
police and lodged complaints. However, these complaints were not recorded,
or were incorrectly recorded. The statements were utilized to contradict
witnesses. If he had adhered strictly to legal procedures and rules of evidence
the accused would have gone free because the statements made by the
450 Final report of the 1994 Western, Southern and Sabaragamuwa Disappearances Commission,
Sessional Paper No V, 1997, at p. xv of the Preface.
451 One such example is referred to at p. 62 of Volume 11 of the Special Report of the Commission, op.
cit.
452 ibid, at p. 6.
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