In the 1980’s the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) organized a series of seminars in Asia, Africa and Latin America on the relationship between human rights and the process of development.
The ICJ calls upon the ruling military council to hand over power to the National League for Democracy which won over 80% of the seats in the recent election for the National Assembly.
The military State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), to give it its full title, is contending that the hand over should not take place until after approval of the New Constitution. This is not only an attempt to delay the transfer of power. It is an attempt to impose a constitution satisfactory to the military authorities, rather than one drawn up by the new National Assembly and submitted to the people for approval.
On 18 February 1990 Richard de Zoysa, a 31 year old journalist, was abducted from his home near Colombo in Sri Lanka in the early hours of the morning by a group of men. His body was found in the sea on 19 February. He had been shot.
A magisterial inquiry into the killing was instituted shortly afterwards. About three-and-a-half months later Mr de Zoysa’s mother, Dr Manorani Saravanamuttu, who had been present at the abduction, claimed to have identified one of the abductors as Senior Superintendent of Police Ronnie Gunasinghe when watching a television news broadcast on which he had appeared.
The police authorities declined to arrest Mr Gunasinghe. Public concern about the killing had, meanwhile, been growing nationally and internationally. Both Dr Saravanamuttu and the lawyer she had instructed to represent her interests at the inquiry received death threats over the telephone and in writing.
Following representations made to Justice, the British section of the International Commission of Jurists, the ICJ decided to send an observer to witness the later stages of the magisterial inquiry. Mr. Anthony Heaton-Armstrong was appointed as its representative on 20 June 1990.
Sri Lanka-homicide of richard de zoysa-fact finding mission report-1990-eng (full text in English, PDF)
This fact-finding mission report was written by David Bitel, for the Australian Section of the ICJ.
The author went to Bangladesh for two weeks in June 1990 in order:
Bangladesh-human rights-fact finding mission report-1990-eng (full text in English, PDF)
In December 1988 the ICJ organised a seminar in the Philippines at which a handbook on training paralegals was prepared, based on the experiences of legal aid and human rights organizations in South and South-East Asia.
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