SL Police officer threatens rights activist

SL Police officer threatens rights activist Sundaram in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 December 2013, 10:20 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Police Inspector, who is in charge of the Trincomalee Police Station had threatened the head of the committee of missing persons, Mr Sundaram Mahendran, when he went there to make a complaint on the attack on him and the protesters on the Human Rights Day. A squad of masked men, allegedly operated by the intelligence wing of the occupying SL military, attacked the peaceful protest organized on December 10 as the SL police was watching the Sinhala squad’s assault on the demonstrators. Mr Sundaram was wounded in the attack and admitted to the hospital.

In a complaint to the Sri Lankan Inspector General of Police, the rights activist said the police officer threatened to file a lawsuit in the Sri Lankan courts accusing Mr Sundaram of ‘inciting Tamil racism’ through staging the protest.

The Police officer had also threatened the activist blaming him for not having secured ‘necessary’ permission to conduct the demonstration, Mr Sundaram stated in his complaint to the SL IGP.

In the meantime, Tamil rights activists in Trincomalee told TamilNet that a detailed report on the assault will be submitted to the United Nations office in Colombo.

The document will also be sent to UN Secretary General and Human Rights High Commissioner.

Chronology:

23.12.13  SL Police officer threatens rights activist Sundar..

11.12.13  SL intelligence squad behind attack on protestors ..

Colombo steps up military deployment

Colombo steps up military deployment under SL Police in Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 December 2013, 23:40 GMT]
The Sri Lankan government is stepping up the deployment of the notorious Special Task Force (STF) commandos in all the districts in the Northern and Eastern provinces, according to latest reports in Colombo media. In August, when UN Human Rights High Commissioner Ms Navi Pillay visited the North and East, the Sri Lankan government announced that it was ‘separating’ the administration of SL Police department from the Defence Ministry and that the police was now coming under the ministry of ‘Law and Order’ according to a recommendation of Rajapaksa’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). The STF, trained by the British, is a full-fledged military outfit under the SL Police, which was directly engaged in acts of genocide in the East as well as in Vanni during the war.

STF Commandant DIG R.W.M.C. Ranawaka has told The Island paper that the STF, which was earlier deployed in Batticaloa and Ampaa’rai districts, has now been deployed in all the districts.

The STF was being strengthened as a post-war security measure and that there was provision for a cadre of 10,000, the paper said. Currently, the STF comprises of 7,800 officers and men, the paper said.

The STF was involved in several massacres in the East.

An alleged war-criminal of the STF, H.D.K.S. Kapila Jeyasekera, who rose in ranks as the Superintendent of Police (SP) and who was responsible for the massacre of five Tamil students in Trincomalee in 2006 as well as the ACF-17 killings, was earlier appointed as the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) to Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts.

In a classified memo written by US's Sri Lanka Ambassador Robert Blake in October 2006 to Washington, ten months after the massacre of five students, SL presidential sibling Basil Rajapakse had admitted that Special Task Force (STF) was responsible for the killings, according a WikiLeaks document.

Chronology:

16.12.13  Colombo steps up military deployment under SL Poli..

15.10.13  UK deployed 2 top police officials to assist SL Po..

08.09.13  UK ‘development’ means building genocidal State ag..

Related Articles:
05.07.13   Twelve STF arrested for 2006 killing of five Trinco students
17.03.13   Kapila Jeyasekara, alleged killer of Trinco-5 students, appo..
29.01.12   STF killed Trinco students, Basil Rajapakse told Blake

UK deployed 2 top police officials to assist SL Police in 2009

UK deployed 2 top police officials to assist SL Police in 2009: Corporate Watch

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 15 October 2013, 22:08 GMT]
A Director of Operations at Ineqe Group Ltd., a Belfast-based Security Agency and a Non Executive Director of the same security outfit, which has project links to British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the British International Development Ministry, were seconded from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and deployed to Sri Lanka by the FCO to act as “critical friends” to the Sri Lankan Police and to provide “hands-on assistance” during the final phase of the war, Corporate Watch has discovered through a Freedom of Information request to the PSNI, news reports in UK said on Tuesday.

Gary White MBE (Director of Operations at Ineqe Group Ltd.) Recently retired from the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Gary White is regarded as one of the most experienced conflict management practitioners in Europe [Courtesy: ineqe.com]

Duncan McClausland OBE (Non Executive Director, Ineque Group Ltd.). A former Assistant Chief Constable with the PSNI during which time, his organisational and management skills were tested during the delivery of services with an annual budget of £1.2b. [Courtesy: ineqe.com]

“It has now emerged UK police training in Sri Lanka continued even during the bloodiest months of the war,” said Belfast Telegraph, on the latest revelation by the Corporate Watch.

The Director of Operations at the Inege Group, Mr Gary White, and Non Executive Director Mr Duncan McCausland were the ‘Critical Friends’ who were ordered to assist the Sri Lankan Police.

The Corporate Watch, which recently revealed how 3,500 SL police officers – including some senior commanders – received training from the Scottish Police College since 2007, releasing the latest report on the Ineqe assistance, also said that the British police has been secretly advising the Sri Lankan forces since the Thatcher era.

Some excerpts from the Corporate Watch report follow:

“Training police abroad is nothing new for the pair. Prior to joining Ineqe, they travelled to Bangladesh, Bolivia, Georgia, Iraq, Lebanon, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Venezuela, according to their CVs - accessible online for any prospective customers to browse. But what on earth were they doing in all these exotic locations? That is less well advertised. In Bolivia, White ran public order courses for the Police and Military, while posing for the camera with some bicycle cops. But it is their work in Sri Lanka that warrants closer scrutiny, as the Belfast Telegraph partially revealed this morning.

“In February 2009, Sri Lanka was an island at war. After nearly three decades of conflict, the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels were being cornered by government forces, in what has become known as the 'killing fields'. 300,000 ethnic Tamil civilians fled the fighting, only to be rounded up and 'screened' for militant sympathies in squalid barbed-wire internment camps. By August 2009, Amnesty International warned that this system of indefinite and arbitrary detention included some 50,000 children.

“It may come as a surprise, then, that this was precisely the six-month period when White and McCausland were seconded from the PSNI and deployed to Sri Lanka by the FCO. The pair were ordered “to act as a 'critical friend' to the Sri Lankan Police” and provide “hands-on assistance”, Corporate Watch has discovered through a Freedom of Information request to the PSNI. The itinerary for their first visit included “high level meetings with [the] Inspector General of Police” (IGP), Sri Lanka's top cop Jayantha Wickramaratne, who incidentally had himself trained in Scotland and Northern Ireland during 2007. As IGP, Wickramaratne was part of the 'Task Force' responsible for the administration of the internment camps.”

Chronology:

15.10.13  UK deployed 2 top police officials to assist SL Po..

08.09.13  UK ‘development’ means building genocidal State ag..

External Links:

Corporate Watch:		FOR SALE: Top UK riot cops. EXPORT: To war zones and dictators October 15, 2013
Belfast Telegraph:		Top PSNI men advised forces of bloody Sri Lankan regime

SL police on rampage at Maanippaay, Aanaikkoaddai in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 03 October 2013, 07:09 GMT]
Following an accidental explosion inside the Sri Lankan police station at Maanippaay on Wednesday, Sinhala policemen assaulted the Tamil civilians in the vicinity of the police station blaming that Tamils had attacked them. Amidst the violence let loose by the Sinhala police at Maanippaay, unidentified men who came in a motorbike assaulted two Sinhala policemen who were on patrol at Aaanaikkoaddai situated 5 km off Jaffna city on the road to Maanippaay. One of the SL police constables, 37-year-old Vasantha Abeyaratne, has been admitted at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital. Tamil civilians were brutally attacked by the SL Police also at Aanaikkoaddai Wednesday night.

The incident at Aaanaikkoaddai was reported around 10:00 p.m. Wednesday.

The SL military intelligence and SL police have been inciting violence following the victory of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the recently held provincial council elections.

There have also been reports of violent attacks launched on Tamil youth at Mallaakam where a hand grendae was lobbed at a place where the youth activists gather. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian Suresh Premachandran has blamed that the SL military and its operatives have launched almost a war against the Tamil youth that rallied behind the TNA during the election campaign.

Related Articles:
01.10.13   TID operatives harass Thinakkural journalists in Jaffna

SL Police arrests TNPF politicians on Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance Day

SL Police arrests TNPF politicians on Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance Day in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Saturday, 18 May 2013, 11:30 GMT]

Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) politician and former parliamentarian Selvaraja Kajendran and Visvalingam Manivannan of the TNPF and thirteen other TNPF activists were arrested by the Sri Lankan Police at Mannaar Saturday afternoon while they were on their way to attend a Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance Day function. The SL police is trying to curb the activities of the TNPF politicians by attempting to detain them under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), initial reports from Mannaar said.

The TNPF politicians were on their way to attend the event after visiting Vavuniyaa where a memorial symbol put up on the occasion of Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance Day was destroyed Friday night.

SL police directs Medical Dean to hand over students to SL military intelligence

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 December 2012, 20:12 GMT]
People of Jaffna were shocked to see Prof Balakumaran, the Medical Faculty Dean of the University of Jaffna under pressure, handing over five students of his faculty directly to Sri Lanka’s military intelligence on Thursday. Another student of the Science Faculty was handed over by his father. When the students were first taken to the SL police at Koappaay, the police refused to take charge of them saying that they had no ‘instructions’ and directed the university authorities to take the students to Military Intelligence headquarters in Jaffna. The students who were handed over were immediately taken to Vavuniyaa where a notorious unit of Colombo’s White Van defence functions. While escorting the students the Medical Faculty dons scared of even taking the students in their cars asked them to come in motorbikes.

The occupying SL military was individually intimidating the deans and former deans of all the faculties of the university.

The Medical Dean was not acting on his own, but was directed by another faculty member Dr. Raviraj, who was earlier in the EPDP-controlled Council of the University and by one more faculty member, Dr Mukunthan, informed sources said.

Out of the four students detained earlier this week, one has been released, but three are kept in SL military detention in Vavuniyaa.

After handing over six more students, the university authorities under pressure are in a hurry to call off the protest, declare ‘normalcy’ and open the university for classes. But the media and public, aware of the realities, took no notice of their statements.

The Jaffna University is getting into a situation reminding of the Dhaka University under the Pakistani military in 1970-71. Whether the West and India are going to allow another worst to happen as they allowed the genocidal Vanni War, or whether they are going to act accepting their blunders, ask social and humanitarian workers in Jaffna.

The medical faculty students in the universities all over the island are known for their timidity and submissiveness in shunning any protests usually spearheaded by the other faculties. Those who know the history of the medical faculties in the island were surprised to see so many of the ‘wanted’ students coming from the medical faculty of the University of Jaffna. That is the reality of the times and the reality of a genocide-affected society, commented a senior faculty member of the university.

The Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) plans to hold a press meet in Colombo on Friday to protest the occupying military’s brutal crackdown on the democratic expressions of Tamil students.

The so-called international media and its reporting infrastructure still operates and thinks Colombo-centric as it was in the times of the genocidal war, commented a senior Tamil journalist in Colombo.

Chronology:

06.12.12  SL police directs Medical Dean to hand over studen..

06.12.12  Sri Lanka intensifies terror campaign against Tami..

05.12.12  Suresh calls upon diaspora youth to respond to Jaf..

04.12.12  Jaffna demonstration backing students demands IC a..

03.12.12  SL military threatens senior faculty members of Ja..

02.12.12  EPC TNA councilor condemns attack on University st..

01.12.12  Paramilitary allegedly backed by India effects arr..

30.11.12  Canadian organizations condemn attack on students ..

29.11.12  SLA attack on Tamil students is ‘additional’ issue..

29.11.12  TNA parliamentarian, university students question ..

28.11.12  Peaceful student protest attacked by SL military i..

28.11.12  Ladies’ hostel lights Common Flame, bells stun SL ..

SL police detains 65-year-old Tamil mother in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 November 2012, 19:39 GMT]
Sri Lankan Police personnel who arrived in Mannaar Monday morning took into custody a 65-year-old Tamil woman, who was alone at her residence in Moor Street. SL Police in Mannaar and the police from Jaffna detained her and took her back to her house and photographed her in front of her house and at the backyard.

The SL police personnel carried out a detailed search of the house digging at several spots inside the premises.

The woman was residing in Mannaar with her two sons in Mannaar since 1997 after she displaced from Jaffna.

The search operation comes 3 days after a male and a girl had left the house following a short stay, the sources further said.

The woman is in the custody at Mannaar Police station, news sources in Mannaar town said.

SL Police in Champoor appropriates public playground in Naavaladi

[TamilNet, Friday, 12 October 2012, 20:07 GMT]
Sri Lankan government officials in Colombo have instructed the divisional secretary of Moothoor to hand over a play ground, about four acres in extent, situated at the centre of several villages in Champoor area to the occupying SL police, civil officials told media. The Moothoor DS is the sole authority of the playground. The Divisional Secretary has handed over the playground for the use of the SL police camped at Champoor without seeking the consent of the people of the area and the school administration.

Before the fall of Moothoor East in to the hands of Sri Lanka Army in the year 2006, the villages Cheanai-yoor, Kaddai-pa'raichchaan, Chaalaiyoor, Chanthoashapuram, Amman Nakar, Kanesapuram, Chantha'na-veddai, Champoor, Kooniththeevu, Choodaik-kudaa, Navaratnapuram, Ilakkanthai, Veeramaanakar, Paaddaa'li-puram, Nalloor, Iththik-ku'lam, Chinnak-ku'lam, Srinivasa-puram, Pa'l'lik-kudiyiruppu and Thangka-puram were under the LTTE administration. The said playground is situated in the middle of these villages.

The said land was cleared and used as a playground in 1948 under the administration of the then Kaddai-pa'richchaan Village Council. With the introduction of Piratheasa Chapai (PS) system the playground was taken over by the Divisional Secretariat.

SL Police releases statue desecration suspect following political influence

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 January 2012, 07:03 GMT]
A suspect arrested by the Sri Lankan police in connection with the desecration of Swami Vivekananda in Batticaloa was released on bail due to the intervention of MLAM Hisbullah, a deputy minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa led government. The statue of 18th century Vedantic spiritual leader of Hinduism, situated in the border of Tamil dominated Aaraiyampathi and Muslim dominated Kaaththaankudi, was desecrated by a motorbike squad Tuesday last week. The SL Police arrested a man, an eyewitness, following the incident and released him. Later, Vahawan alias Vadi, a Muslim person who owns a hardware store in Kaaththaankudi, was arrested by the SL Police in Kaaththaankudi.

Due to the intervention of Mr. Hisbullah, the suspect was released by the police after two hours of his detention in the police station.   The suspect, alleged to have committed several crimes in the past in Batticaloa, has been evading arrest due to political influence, sources in Kaaththaankudi said.

Civil organizations have requested the authorities to initiate necessary steps to repair the damaged statue as the culprit for the crime had been identified.

The destruction is viewed as an attempt to create further divisions between Tamils and Muslims in the district.

Certain elements in the ruling UPFA were protesting against the use of Arabic in the East in the beginning of 2011.

Later, in September 2011, name boards in Tamil were destroyed by an unknown squad, who were believed to be operatives of the military establishment in Colombo.

The welcome board “Va'nakkam, Batticaloa welcomes you” in Tamil was removed and the Sri Lankan police was spreading a rumour that certain Muslim leaders, including the Batticaloa Urban Council chairman considered “Va'nakkam” in Tamil as harem at that time.

Chronology:

16.01.12  SL Police releases statue desecration suspect foll..

13.01.12  TNA parliamentarian condemns desecration of Viveka..

10.01.12  Motorbike squad destroys Swami Vivekananda statue

Abductions on rise in Vanni, Red Cross joins SL Police in refusing to register complaints

[TamilNet, Thursday, 08 December 2011, 07:47 GMT]
A 23-year-old Tamil youth was abducted Tuesday night by armed men who came in a white van while the youth, Ganeshamoorthy Rathan, was talking to his friends along roadside in Kaadduvinayaakar temple area of his native village, Mu'l'liyava'lai of Mullaiththeevu district. Mr. Rathan was brought to his house and instructed to park his bicycle at his house. When the mother of the victim suspected that her son was under pressure by unknown men who accompanied him, the men pulled out a gun and said they were from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the SL Police and instructed Mr. Rathan to get into the van. When the family members went to the SL Red Cross office situated in Mullaiththeevu, the officials at the office refused to accept the complaint and said they do not register such complaints.

The SL Police in Mu'l'liyava'lai was also resisting to register the complaint from the family till Wednesday. The police later allowed the family to file the complaint.

Ganeshamoorthy Rathan was not associated with the LTTE in the past, according to his family and relatives.

The abductions, again on increase in Vanni, have created an atmosphere of tension and fear among the Tamil people.

Informed paramilitary circles say that the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry in Colombo is behind an elite squad that carries out many of the abductions these days. The armed men who usually come in unregistered vehicles also seem to instruct the victims to park or hand over their bicycles or motorbikes to their family or relatives without evoking suspicion. During the abductions, the victims are attached wireless devices and are accompanied by men in civil who keep an eye on them, making a smooth appearance of the abduction.

SL Police backed robbery group exposed in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 06 December 2011, 23:01 GMT]
The Sri Lankan Police in the city of Mannaar has been backing a 10-member gang to fuel communal hatred among the sections of Tamil speaking people in Mannaar, legal sources in the city told TamilNet Tuesday. The ploy has come to light after the gang leader with Muslim name, allegedly a convert from Hindu background, has been caught following a number of criminal acts in the city. Known by one name, Rahman, has been harassing Tamil women and has been allegedly behind a number of robberies while sharing the ‘income’ with senior SL police personnel in Mannaar police station, sources in the city said.

People in the city have been living in fear as the robbery and theft allegedly carried out by the gang led by Rahman was on the increase in recent months.

The gang leader was arrested after he went to a house with another person named Vimes and severely assaulted three youths of a same family at gunpoint on 29 November. The injured were admitted to the Mannaar base hospital. One of the victims is still warded in the hospital.

Mannaar Magistrate ordered one week remand for Rahuman and Vimes and directed the police to hold further inquiry.

More than ten complaints of sexual assaults and robbery have been registered against ‘Rahman’, who has also been named as a key operative in running narcotics.

The gang members have been involved in violent acts that seek to create divisions among the Tamil speaking people in the city.

SL Police registers details of residents in Trincomalee city

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 October 2011, 11:12 GMT]
The occupying Sri Lanka Police in Trincomalee has started registering residents in Trincomalee city and its suburbs from Saturday evening. SL Police personnel were seen visiting households in Trincomalee city Sunday handing over printed forms to the chief occupant and asking him or her to write names of persons residing in the house.

The forms are printed in three languages with the title “Declaration under Police Ordinance-Section 76”. 

Chief occupants have been asked to provide the names of persons residing permanently and temporarily with them and their occupation.

Related Articles:
29.10.11   SL Police registering people in Batticaloa causes fear among.

SL Police registering people in Batticaloa causes fear among residents

[TamilNet, Saturday, 29 October 2011, 17:01 GMT]
Fear and tension prevail among residents of Batticaloa district following the re-introduction of registration of persons by the Sri Lankan Police. The SL police personnel, predominantly Sinhalese, have been collecting the details of residents living permanently and temporarily in Batticaloa. Students and others from remote areas such as Paduvaankarai, staying in Batticaloa for study and work, fear that their freedom of movement and security is threatened, civil sources in Batticaloa city said.

In the past, several youths of both sexes were arrested by the SL Police and Sri Lanka Army for staying in Batticaloa without registering their presence in Batticaloa city and its suburbs.

Two months ago, former members of the LTTE who had left the movement even before 1990 were summoned to the camps of the Sri Lanka Army and were fingerprinted and photographed.

Human Rights lawyer in Batticaloa P. Premnath said that the Sri Lankan Poice has not made the residents aware of the purpose of collecting such data.