death penalty news December 14, 2004
SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka Prepares for Return of Execution The country's 25-year-old executioner has no experience. The hanging ropes have rotted. The bolts on the gallows have rusted. This island nation hasn't had an execution in 28 years. But after the murder of a prominent judge a few weeks ago, the president lifted a moratorium on capital punishment. Now, prison officials are waiting for their first hanging order. It's not just the condemned who are worried. "I am a sitting duck," the executioner, Suramimala Wijetunge, told The Island newspaper in an interview, terrified that media attention had made him a target for reprisal from criminal gangs. After years of collecting a salary for doing little more than occasionally helping with prison deliveries, he fears for his life and has asked for police protection. The first execution could come any day. "The pressure on me is tremendous to see that all goes well," said Rumy Marzook, the prison chief, sitting in his office in the country's main Welikada Prison. An outspoken critic of corruption in the prison system, he doesn't eat or drink anything in the 36 prisons he oversees, fearing poisonings. He also has an armed bodyguard, changes his travel routes and avoids visiting prison wards that hold condemned men, fearing he could be taken hostage. Capital punishment remains on the books in Sri Lanka, and courts have continued to issue the death penalty, though no one has been executed here since 1976. As many countries around the world began to abolish the death penalty - more than 80 have banned it so far - Sri Lanka followed the trend by simply halting executions. "Sri Lanka did maintain standards with the world," said Radhika Coomaraswamy, chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission. Regionally, South Asia is divided on the issue, with India, Pakistan and Bangladesh carrying out executions and Nepal and Bhutan abolishing the death penalty. Religion, said Rohan Ediresinghe, of the good governance organization the Centre for Policy Alternatives, played a large role in Sri Lanka's decision. The nation, he notes, is largely Buddhist, a religion with a strong strain of non-violence. "But a time comes when political leaders feel they should revive it to counter a greater threat," said Ediresinghe, who called the policy change as a "knee-jerk" reaction to the judge's killing. The threat today is crime, spawned by a civil war that is now largely calmed by a 2002 cease-fire. The war has torn at the country since 1983, killed some 65,000 people and resulted in thousands of military desertions. "Right now we have 30,000 deserters," said Rienzie Perera, the police spokesman. "This is one of the main reasons for the crime chart to rise," he said. Contract killings can be easily arranged, and weapons - from the smallest pistol to the largest machine gun - are readily available. The final straw came Nov. 21, when High Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya, known for tough verdicts against gangsters and drug dealers, was gunned down with his bodyguard. The next day, President Chandrika Kumaratunga lifted the death penalty moratorium. Today, 49 condemned prisoners with rejected clemency appeals await execution on this island of 19 million people, and 152 others sentenced to death have pending appeals. Amnesty International said it is "gravely concerned" over the decision to bring back the death penalty. "Given the significant failings within the Sri Lankan justice system, including frequent reports of torture in custody to extract confessions, the chances of innocent people being executed are high," the rights group said in a report. But there appears to be little sympathy for the condemned in Sri Lanka, where the history of capital punishment stretches back to the late 19th century and British colonial rule. "To hell with human rights: hang killer," said the headline of one letter to the editor in The Island newspaper. Others are more eloquent. The government "has finally realized that the death penalty should be given," said defense attorney Hemantha Warnakulasuriya. He was unconcerned about the prison system's ill-preparedness. "Those matters can be tackled," he said. In the prisons, though, the preparations are stumbling along, with officials now unable to find any hanging rope. India and China have been approached to sell some of the specially made cord, but officials have heard nothing back. And at the two prisons with gallows, there is no one experienced to do the job. Wijetunge has the title of executioner in Welikada Prison, but he got the job in 2000 when his father - who never performed an execution either - retired. But despite it all, Marzook insists he will be ready. "When I get the order to go ahead, I will ensure that all systems are go." (source: AP)
