Just as Sri Lanka recently told the UN General Assembly that it treated freedom of expression as “sacrosanct”, the police arrested dozens of protesters in Colombo this weekend for resisting a Presidential order.
Addressing the ongoing UN General Assembly session in New York on Saturday, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said: “We unconditionally recognise the fact that one has a fundamental right to the freedom of expression, which we all treat as being sacrosanct.” He added: “However, it must also be appreciated that, this freedom must be within the constitutional order, and must be exercised having regard to one’s fundamental duty to express oneself within the confines of the law.”
The same day, the police arrested some 84 persons who took part in a protest organised by the Socialist Youth Union against state “suppression” of citizens’ rights. The arrests were made after police unleashed tear gas and water cannons at the protesters, a day after President Ranil Wickremesinghe declared prominent locations around key government buildings as “High Security Zones”, effectively outlawing protests in their vicinity.
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Rights organisations and government critics slammed the arrests, pointing to Sri Lankan authorities’ actions evidently contradicting the Foreign Minister’s pledge at the UN forum, that too weeks before Sri Lanka defends its rights record at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. “By arresting at least 84 peaceful protesters, Sri Lankan authorities have reaffirmed its intolerance towards dissent. Ironically, these peaceful protesters were demonstrating against the State’s suppression of dissent,” Amnesty International said on Saturday.
Deep concern
The development has yet again set off concern amid Sri Lanka’s rights defenders who have, since President Wickremesinghe’s appointment, been flagging a “witch-hunt” by the government, targeting several individuals who were at the forefront of mass anti-government protests this year. The detention of three student leaders last month, under a controversial anti-terrorism law, drew global condemnation, including from the UN Human Rights Chief who termed their arrest “alarming”.
Meanwhile, the Presidential order declaring a new set of High Security Zones in the capital under the Official Secrets Act — Tamils living in the north and east have contended with large, heavily militarised high security zones for many years — has also drawn criticism.
Expressing “deep concern”, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) said the purported order of the President, under Sri Lanka’s Official Secrets Act, included “draconian” provisions, “violating the freedom of expression, the freedom of peaceful assembly and the freedom of movement all of which are important aspects of the right of the people to dissent in Sri Lanka.”
The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka on Monday said the notion that the High-Security Zones be declared under the country’s Official Secret Act “is a fallacy without any justification or basis,” besides the declaration “grossly violating” fundamental rights.
“The Official Secrets Act cannot be adopted to declare High-Security Zones,” the Commission said, advising the government to withdraw the gazette and ensure national laws follow “accepted international and national human rights norms and standards” and “to preclude” declarations that violate those norms and standards.
