Sri Lanka: A Sorry State

Following statement issued by the Asian Human Rights Commission, a rights group based in
Hong Kong.
A man is thrown into a barrel with a cobra and left to die
Photo Courtesy of the BBC
!ay "#, $%"&, Colombo ' Hong Kong, (ri )an*a +uardian, A man was bitten four times by a
-enomous cobra after being forced into a barrel with the sna*e by a criminal gang operating a
baby elephant stealing rac*et in (ri )an*a
.his story was reported in se-eral news channels.
.he -ictim, /ammi*a 0isantha, a resident of (e-anagala, a -illage area in (ri )an*a, is the
father of two children. /ammi*a, is presently being treated at the 1mbilipitiya +eneral
Hospital. According to /ammi*a, he was made to undergo this cruel and inhuman act on the
suspicion that he had pro-ided information to the police regarding the attempted theft of a baby
elephant by an unidentified criminal gang in the area.
Following this inhuman act, one of the suspects surrendered himself to the police after being in
hiding for se-eral days. He was later produced before the 1mbilipitiya !agistrate2s Court who
ordered that he be remanded until the !ay $$, $%"&. (e-eral other suspects are still at large and
are suspected to be in hiding.
.his gruesome attempt at the murder of an innocent -illager, following the scuttled attempt at
the theft of a baby elephant, e3poses yet again the depths of the collapse of law in (ri )an*a
and the e3tent to which organi4ed gangs operate in order to achie-e their criminal ob5ecti-es.
.his is the second attempt to capture wild baby elephants from a protected area in recent days.
According to reports, criminals arri-ed in two Pa5ero type 5eeps and were accompanied by a
truc* in which they intended to load the baby elephants. 6n this instance too, the -illagers
inter-ened to obstruct this criminal gang and it was at this stage that the police had arri-ed at
the scene.
7pon arri-al the police made no attempt whatsoe-er to arrest the culprits and instead,
inter-ened to assist them to escape unharmed from the angry -illagers.
/uring this incident a cameraman who was trying to ta*e photographs of the incident,
including that of the registration numbers of the -ehicles used, was brutally assaulted by these
persons. .he cameraman had been dragged inside one of the Pa5eros and further assaulted. 6t
was only after the angry -illagers inter-ened that the cameraman was later thrown out of the
mo-ing -ehicle. He thereafter complained that his camera had been stolen by the criminals and
it was only returned to him after the storage de-ice had been remo-ed.
.hat incident led to se-eral statements being made by many organi4ations in-ol-ed in the
protection of elephants and these statements all highlighted the e3tent of and alarming increase
in the practice of stealing of baby elephants from wildlife sanctuaries. .hese en-ironmental
groups also e3posed that the baby elephants are captured by those who are engaged in
pro-iding elephants to hotels and other religious institutions on hire. According to the acti-ists,
the daily hire of an elephant could easily go up to around Rs. "%%,%%%.%% 7(/ 89%,.
6n this particular incident of the attempted murder of /ammi*a 0isantha, the only person who
is in custody so far is the man who surrendered himself to the Courts through a lawyer. .here
are no reports a-ailable of any attempt by the police to arrest the others who were in-ol-ed in
this crime.
:hat is e-en more stri*ing is that there seems to be no attempt at all to in-estigate the
conspiracy behind this attempted murder. .he man who surrendered to the courts so far is an
ordinary -illager who had been engaged in ri-er bed, sand mining in the area. Howe-er, it is
apparent that more powerful persons are behind the organised rac*et of stealing baby elephants
and the attempted murder of /ammi*a was carried out in order to silence him and with a -iew
to eliminate a suspected informer. 6t would ha-e also been the intention of these criminals to
intimidate any -illagers that dare to re-eal information about the rac*et of capturing wild baby
elephants in these areas.
/ammi*a escaped by pretending to be dead. .he criminals had ta*en him out of the barrel and
left him in the forest to create the impression that he had been bitten by a sna*e. .hey also
*illed the sna*e and left it near his body.
Fortunately, /ammi*a was later able to reach a hospital in time to sa-e his life. 6f the original
scheme of the crime was to succeed, this would ha-e been recorded as a case of death due to a
sna*e bite.
.his is the e3tent to which organi4ed criminal gangs operate in pursuit of their aims in (ri
)an*a. .hey feel so uninhibited that they dare to come in Pa5ero 5eeps and with truc*s to
engage in this daylight robberies of baby elephants that are a protected species in (ri )an*a.
.he robbers are so bra4en that they belie-e the law enforcement agencies are deaf and dumb to
their acti-ities and that they can escape without any conse;uences.
<n this occasion they too* their arrogance to the ne3t le-el when they tried to murder a person
they belie-ed to be an informer.
(uch a collapse in the control of crime is possible only when the go-ernments ha-e abandoned
their primary role which is to protect the community. 6t is only in a country where politicians
holding power cynically laugh at their own system of crime control that the citi4ens are
e3posed to this *ind of situation. .his attempted murder by throwing a man into a barrel in
order to be bitten by a -enomous sna*e is not some isolated and rare incident or an e3ceptional
case. .hese crimes manifest the failures of law enforcement that ta*e place all the times and
e-erywhere in (ri )an*a.
1-en under such e3treme conditions, the opposition political parties ha-e blatantly failed to put
up an organi4ed campaign to e3pose these failures of go-ernance and to gi-e leadership to the
people who are frustrated beyond measure as a result. .he -ery fact these opposition parties fail
to grasp how deep the frustrations of the people actually are when their most basic rights to
protection is denied is an indication of sheer absence of political sensiti-ity of these parties.
7nder these circumstances, it becomes the duty of the ci-il society itself to ma*e all possible
efforts to ma*e their sufferings and their frustrations to be heard and *nown to the ruling
regime. .he only alternati-e left, in the failure of such attempts then, is to e3pect worse crimes
ta*ing place with more fre;uency in (ri )an*a.