The notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act are probably the most misused laws in Sri Lanka by the law enforcement authorities, in most cases pacifying the politicians in power.
The PTA has been misused against hundreds of Tamil youth, accusing them of involving in separatist activities. Some Tamil youth arrested under this law have been in prisons not for years but decades. Namal Rajapaksa, in 2021 when he was a minister told parliament that some of the Tamil detainees who had been arrested under the PTA have been in remand prisons for longer than his age (35 years then), with no charges having been filed against them.
What a crime! Yet, even his government was not moved by his revelation. No detainee so languishing in jails were released at least on bail, while the leaders of the LTTE who ordered or supplied arms and ammunition to brutally kill tens of thousands of civilians outside the war theatre enjoyed or are still enjoying the luxuries of the free world with state patronage. It was these government leaders who are strengthening the separatist tendencies within the Tamil community by this kind of arrogance.
The ICCPR which was meant for the protection of the minorities in various countries in the world was once used here against a writer for writing a controversial short-story. It was also used against an innocent rural woman falsely accusing her of wearing an attire with a Buddhist symbol printed on it. The Muslim woman from Hasalaka who was arrested in the month of Ramadan which is holy to Muslims was later acquitted by the court, yet she had to undergo a lot of sufferings, especially for her being pregnant at the time of the arrest.
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the steering group in the current National People’s Power (NPP) government also seem to be going back on its decade long promise against the use of the PTA. The government used it first against the suspects who were accused to have conspired to harm the Israeli tourists in Arugam Bay in the Eastern Province in October last year.
Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath stated then that in spite of their party being committed to replace the PTA with a new terrorism related law in par with the international standards, his government had to use the existing law until then. The JVP leaders seem to have forgotten their own contention that the country has so many laws that could address terrorism, other than the draconian PTA.
In a latest incident police have arrested a 22-year-old Muslim youth for pasting a pro-Palestinian sticker on a wall of a shopping mall in Slave Island in Colombo. Police defended the arrest by saying in a statement that “he was taken into custody due to concerns over his radical views and because he is considered a person who shows a tendency to engage in some form of terrorist activity.” However, the statement also relates the arrest to the arrival of tourists in the near future. Whatever the reason may be, the question remains as to how the police under a government that campaigned for the abrogation of the PTA use the same oppressive law against a single individual who does not seem to have links with any terrorist group.
Sri Lanka has given an undertaking to the international community, especially the UNHRC and the European Union to repeal or replace the PTA with a new law in line with international standards. Accordingly, the so-called Yahapalana Government presented the “Counter Terrorism Bill” followed by the last government drafting the “Anti-Terrorism Bill,” interestingly under the guidance of Ranil Wickremesinghe, in the first occasion as the Prime Minister and later as the President. However, local as well as international human rights organisations including the UNHRC rejected them as being more ruthless than the existing PTA.
The government which is surviving on a bailout package offered by the IMF has to remember that the European Parliament on June 10, 2021 has threatened to withdraw the GSP + concessions awarded to Sri Lanka unless the country takes some positive steps towards PTA and those who had been arrested under it including Shani Abeysekara, the current Director of the Criminal Intelligence Analysis and Prevention Division. If the government is not concerned about its own moral responsibility, it, at least has to take these external threats into account.