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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 babyelephant 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.

http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2014/05/sri-lanka-sorry-state.htmlhttp://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fepLdDgdReA/U3WlWye9bAI/AAAAAAAAZnM/RchFllXnk9A/s1600/AHRC-STM-091-2014-01.jpghttp://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-078-2012http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2014/05/sri-lanka-sorry-state.html

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his gruesome attempt at the murder of an innocent -illager, following the scuttled attempt atthe 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 -illagersinter-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 andit 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 whois 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 babyelephants 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

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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.