Priests, nuns join protesters against S. Lankan police brutality

(November 6, 2009) Several priests and nuns joined hundreds of protesters in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo on Wednesday to demand justice for a man who was shown in a televised video being beaten by a policeman shortly before he drowned. The video, broadcast last week by the Telshan television station, showed B. Sivakumar being hit with a baton by a man identified as a policeman. Sivakumar ran into the sea to escape the beating but the policeman followed and continued to strike him as he clasped his hands begging for mercy. He later drowned. Sivakumar's family told the TV station that he was mentally ill. Father Terrence Fernando of Colombo archdiocese said, "People are tired and scared of the immunity enjoyed by the police force." Some 700 human rights activists, Christian priests, nuns, laypeople and politicians demonstrated in front of the harbour railway station in Colombo in the incident's aftermath. They held placards with messages such as "Police are killers" and "Bring all to book." Sri Lanka has been widely criticized over its human rights record, particularly during its decades-long civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels that ended earlier this year. Father Fernando said there are thousands of cases of human rights violations by the country's security forces, including police, in which no one has been prosecuted.