COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
―Fears have focused on the concentration of power within a small circle of the family
and friends of Sri Lanka‘s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa. Although this concentration
has arguably helped to improve the functioning of government, as projects can now be
approved more quickly, it has also served to undermine the island‘s institutions, which
could impair government functioning in the long term. The passage of an amendment to
the constitution in 2010 further eroded checks and balances on the power of the
presidency. The dominance of Mr Rajapaksa‘s government, coupled with the weak state
of the opposition, has led many who oppose the current administration to disengage
from the political process. In the 2010 presidential elections turnout varied across the
island, from above 80% in several southern districts to only 26% in Jaffna, a northern
district that is almost exclusively Tamil. This goes some way towards explaining why Sri
Lanka receives only the modest score of 5 for political participation. Nevertheless,
despite one reported violent incident, the local authority elections that were held in three
stages over the course of 2011 passed off relatively smoothly and peacefully; hence the
country‘s robust score of 7 for the electoral process category.‖
―Democracy index, 2011, by category (on a scale of 0 to 10)
―Electoral process and pluralism 7.00
―Functioning of government 6.07
―Political participation 5.00
―Political culture 6.88
―Civil liberties 7.94‖
8. SECURITY FORCES AND PARAMILITARY GROUPS
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8.01 The security forces comprise the 86,000-member Sri Lanka Police Service (SLPS); the
5,850-strong paramilitary Special Task Force (USSD 2010) 118 ; the 160,900-strong
armed forces (as of November 2009 including recalled reservists: army 117,900, navy
15,000, air force 28,000; reserve forces 5,500, and paramilitary forces of an estimated
61,200 (including an 15,000 National Guard, 13,000 Home Guard and a 3,000-strong
anti-guerrilla Special Task Force). (Europa World Online, Sri Lanka 119 , accessed on 1
June 2011) As Jane‘s Sentinel Risk Assessments, Sri Lanka, 120 noted, there are also a
number non-state, pro-government paramilitary groups operating in the country
including ―… the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Eelam
People's Democratic Party (EPDP), Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and
latterly the People's National Liberation Tigers (TMVP).‖
118 US State Department 2010 Human Rights Report: Sri Lanka (USSD 2010), released on 8 April 2011,
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/sca/154486.htm , date accessed 11 May 2011, Section 1d
119 Europa World Online, Sri Lanka, Defence, undated http://www.europaworld.com/entry/lk.dir.557
[subscription only], date accessed 1 June 2011
120 Jane’s Sentinel Country Risk Assessments, Country Report, Sri Lanka,
http://sentinel.janes.com/docs/sentinel/SASS_country.jsp?Prod_Name=SASS&Sent_Country=Sri%20La
nka& [subscription only] date accessed 3 February 2012, Security and foreign forces, 4 January 2012
62 The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.