Untitled - International Commission of Jurists

were SLFPers. I was told, that area could be cleared, if I were to catch them. 276
(Evidence by then Commander Sri Lanka Army, Lt. General Rohan
Daluwatte)
Promotion of police officers said to have acted at the behest of politicians contrary to
law was clearly evidenced during this period.
In the promotion of Udugampola SP over 15 more senior officers to the rank
of DIG, I saw the portents of the plan to use the Police Force in the narrow
interests of politicians. It was clear to me that alternative structures of
command were put in place within the Police Force for the purpose. I realised
that a system of promotion to this effect was being put into
operation. 277 (Evidence by former IGP (Mr LGD Cyril Herath)
It is fair to ask how it is that such candid testimony could emerge. The answer will
owe a great deal to the fact that the political regime implicated in this influence
peddling was no longer in power.
In the 1994 Northern and Eastern Disappearances Commission Report, the
Commission came to the conclusion that ninety percent of the removals were at the
hands of the security forces: army, navy, air force and the police. 278 This Commission
explicitly named the security officers repeatedly implicated in the enforced
disappearances but cautioned (as indeed, did the other Commissions) that it could not,
on ex parte evidence alone, decide on their guilt. 279
Hence proper inquiries have to be undertaken and evidence given by the
complainants should stand the scrutiny of cross-examination.” 280
The manifold aspects of state accountability in this regard were stark as well outlined
in one observation
[I]n addition to the government’s liability that arises solely from the act of
disappearances themselves, there are other factors adding to the gravity of
these cases, such as the conspiracy to cause these disappearances, acts of
encouragement to cause disappearances, acts of supervision of the process of
carrying out these disappearances and acts of failure to divulge information
regarding these disappearances. 281
The need to enforce accountability on the part of those so implicated from the highest
to the lowest levels in Sri Lanka’s political structures was clear. Otherwise, as was
observed,
276 Final report of the 1994 Western, Southern and Sabaragamuwa Disappearances Commission,
Sessional Paper No V, 1997, at p. 35.
277 ibid.
278 Final report of the 1994 Northern and Eastern Disappearances Commission, Sessional Paper No
VII, 1997, at p. 62.
279 ibid.
280 ibid.
281 Asian Human Rights Commission, ‘Thousands of Disappearances Established: Truth Commission
urged,’ Human Rights SOLIDARITY, Vol. 7, No. 5, Hong Kong, 1997, at p. 17.
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