HSZ high-handedness

Last week President Ranil Wickremesinghe issued an Extraordinary Gazette notification declaring several areas in Colombo as High Security Zones. The law used for this purpose was the Official Secrets Act No. 32 of 1955. 

This act enables the Minister of Defence, in the current context the President, to declare any land, building, ship, or aircraft as a prohibited place. However, the Act does not empower the Minister to declare large areas as High Security Zones. The recently designated areas in Colombo include several locations within the capital that are often used for peaceful protests.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has expressed deep concerns over this move noting that the President’s order purports to prohibit public gatherings or processions on a road, ground, shore, or other open area situated within such High Security Zones without the permission of the Inspector General of Police or a Senior Deputy Inspector General. It also prohibits the parking of vehicles within the zone.

The BASL further points out that the objective of making an order under Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act is to better safeguard information relating to the defences of Sri Lanka and to the equipment, establishments, organisations, and institutions intended to be or capable of being used for the purposes of defence. Orders under Section 2 of the Act cannot be made for any other purpose. “The BASL is deeply concerned that under the cover of the purported order under Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act that there is the imposition of draconian provisions for the detention of persons who violate such orders thus 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,” a statement from the BASL said.

Last week police arrested 84 protesters, including activists of the Socialist Youth Front, for taking part in a protest march against the Government. The Police called the protests “illegal” adding that there was a potential to cause a public nuisance and damage to public property. The official statement from the Police also cited the possibility of the protestors entering high security zones while the actual protest happened elsewhere. Such lame excuses to curtail citizens’ democratic right to freedom of expression including peaceful protests will only exacerbate public anger towards the current administration. For an administration that lacks a public mandate with a president unelected by the people it would be asking for trouble.

The arrest of protesters and often charging them under the draconian anti-terrorism laws have become the modus operandi for the Government of President Ranil Wickremesinghe. It is quite ironic that a president who ascended to current high office due to the island-wide protests against his predecessor is at the forefront of crushing the mass protest movement. President Wickremesinghe, the main beneficiary of the protests, has since assuming office described the protesters as “fascists” and begun to use the full force of State machinery against activists he alleged had broken the law.

These anti-democratic actions of the Government come while there is international scrutiny towards the country. There is currently a resolution being discussed at the UN Human Rights Council that will address the deteriorating situation in the country. Earlier this month the High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Government “to immediately end the reliance on draconian security laws and crackdowns on peaceful protest and reverse the drift towards militarisation.”

President Wickremesinghe for his own good should desist from enacting draconian provisions that curtail freedom of expression. He should at least see the plight of his predecessor and understand the futility of such actions.