Death threats and beatings

(October 2008)

Story published in Union View n°11, also available at http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/VS_Sri_lanka_EN.pdf

Of the three main trade unions active in Sri Lanka’s export processing zones (EPZs), the FTZ&GSEU (1) has received the most disturbing threats in recent months. Many have been directed at its secretary-general, Anton Marcus, a tireless activist who has become a bogeyman for countless employers. The FTZ&GSEU’s vice-president at a clothing factory has also been severely beaten.

Anton Marcus received death threats last year. They started on 6 February 2007, when three employees of the railway trade union newspaper Akuna were abducted in Colombo (2). The abductions prompted a spontaneous demonstration the following day outside Colombo Fort station. On 8 February, the government announced that the three men had been taken into custody and were being questioned on suspicion of collaborating with the Tamil Tigers. The union leaders who took part in the demonstration were then the victims of a campaign that sought to associate them with the terrorist uprising. ‘Wanted’ posters bearing their names and portraying them as traitors and terrorists appeared in public places. Anton Marcus was one of those targeted (3), and subsequently received death threats. The trade unionists lodged several complaints with the police in the hope of receiving protection, but the police failed to investigate the matter seriously.

White van threat

Anton Marcus had another narrow escape in November 2007: “Two people claiming to be from the Ministry of Defence came to talk to me at my office. I answered their questions about trade union activities, but I refused to answer personal questions (about my home, etc.), which annoyed them. Around seven in the evening, when I left my office, I noticed a white van parked outside the entrance: that’s a very bad sign in Sri Lanka at the moment (4). I took a rickshaw home, saw the white van was following, changed rickshaw and shook them off. The following day, the driver of a car that often takes me to the office was stopped on the road by two men on motorbikes. They asked him when and where he would be taking me next, and promised him money if he’d stop the car where they told him to. They also threatened him. When I learned of this, I realised that the threats were becoming very serious. I wrote to the authorities, to JAAF (5) to notify them, and I also went to the police, but they did nothing about it. Worse still, in July, the President of JAAF told me that I’d end up being abducted in a white van one day.”

Threats to FTZ&GSEU activists can be accompanied by violence, as R. Pieris, vice-president of the FTZ&GSEU branch at the Star Garment clothing factory in the Katunayake zone, knows only too well: “On 23 June 2008, at around 9 p.m., I was returning home on my moped after work. Suddenly three people on motorbikes came alongside me and ordered me to stop, threatening me with a knife. They told me to give up my trade union activities then beat me with their helmets and kicked me. An acquaintance of mine was nearby; he came up and my attackers fled. I went to the police to lodge a complaint, and then to hospital, where I spent three days being treated for injuries to my eye and stomach. I still have problems with my eyesight and suffer migraines as a result of the blows I received. As I was being attacked, I heard somebody mention the name of one of my assailants. The police took me to the home of this assailant and arrested him. He said he’d been paid by a Star Garment manager to attack me. Two days later he changed his story: first he said it was another Star Garment worker who’d asked him to beat me, then he claimed that I’d hit him and he was just getting his own back, which is untrue.”

                                                                           Samuel Grumiau

(1) Free Trade Zones & General Services Employees Union, affiliated to the ITGLWF.

(2) Nihal Serasinghe, a contributor to the newspaper, Lalith Seneviratne, in charge of layout, and Sisira Priyankara, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief.

(3) The others were Sman Ratnapriya and Ravi Kumudesh of the Health Services Trade Union Alliance (HSTUA,) Sampath Rajitha and Raja Kannangara of the Joint Railway Trade Union Alliance (JRTUA) and Joseph Stalin of the Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU).

(4) There have been countless cases of people being abducted by individuals driving white vans in recent months. Some of the victims have never been found, others have been found murdered while others turn up in the hands of the Terrorist Investigation Department, which is known to use torture during interrogations.

(5) Joint Apparel Association Forum.