Untitled - International Commission of Jurists

police did not carry out the arrest. The investigation was abandoned after a brief
gesture of further interest on the part of the Attorney General. The recommendations
of the 1994 Southern, Western and Sabaragamuwa Disappearances Commission that
the case be investigated further were also disregarded.
The complicity of the AG in not prosecuting the case diligently and his refusal to
proceed against the accused police officer on the basis that the evidence was not
sufficient for him to frame charges against the accused police officer drew critical
commentary. 164 The perceived cover-up at all stages of the investigation led to
protests by de Zoysa’s lawyer as well as by others. 165 Members of the Liberal Party
expressed their consternation at what this prosecution signified for the justice system.
An all too clear impression has been created of the obstructionism of the
police. In addition, the suspicions of partisanship and lack of commitment to
an impartial pursuit of justice by the Attorney General’s Department gravely
undermine the credibility of what should be, in a functioning democracy,
impartial institutions of the State. The unhelpful attitude adopted in this case
by the relevant agencies of the police and by the Attorney General’s
Department only serves to confirm the recent deplorable trend in Sri Lankan
public affairs that the distinction between the armed forces and the
administrators has all but disappeared. 166
The Attorney General was reminded by the Liberal Party members that he was the
law officer of the State, not the ‘partisan counsel of any particular persons in
authority.” 167 Both de Zoysa’s mother and her lawyer received death threats warning
them that if they continue to press the case, that they would be both killed. 168 Years
later, the case remains unsolved. 169
The overwhelming majority of extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances
of Sinhalese civilians during this period suffered the same fate. 170
4. Prosecutions Relating to Sexual Violence and Conflict
164 Weerakoon Batty, ‘The Attorney General’s Role in the Extra-Judicial Execution of Richard de
Zoysa,’ Star Press, Published by the author, 1991.
165 Civil Rights Movement, ‘The Next Step in the Richard de Zoysa Case,’ E-01/9/90. The Bar
Association also found the inquiry to be thoroughly unsatisfactory.
166 Amaratunge, Chanaka and Wijesinha, Rajiva, op.cit, ‘Statement on the Murder of Richard de Zoysa,’
at p.30.
167 ibid. The commentary continues, noting that justice must not only done but seen to be done in “an
outrageous and obvious case of political murder,” public confidence in the processes of justice and the
law will be greatly compromised.
168 Civil Rights Movement, ‘Death Threats in the Richard de Zoysa Case,’ E-01/6/90.
169 The SSP implicated in the de Zoysa killing was himself killed in a bomb blast engineered by the
LTTE and aimed at a prominent UNP politician, Gamini Dissanayake in 1994.
170 Most notably, on 4 April 1997, a Colombo Magistrate ordered the release of Assistant
Superintendent of Police Sumith Edirisinghe and Chief Inspector Anton Sisira Kumara who had been
accused of abducting and murdering a number of people in the Hokandara area in 1989 and having
them buried along a roadside. The site was later excavated and skeletal remains found, some of which
were sent for forensic examination. On 5 April 1997, charges were also dropped against suspects in the
Wawulkeley murder case in which six persons including four police officers had been accused of
abducting and murdering six youths in 1989. In both instances, the charges were dropped due to lack of
evidence. See Human Rights Watch World Report 1998, at p. 13.
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