COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
POLICE
See Pro-government (non state) paramilitary groups below
8.02 The US State Department 2010 Human Rights Report: Sri Lanka (USSD 2010) 121 ,
released on 8 April 2011, observed that:
―The inspector general of police (IGP) is responsible for the 86,000-member Sri Lanka
Police Service (SLPS). The SLPS conducts civilian police functions, such as enforcing
criminal and traffic laws, enhancing public safety, and maintaining order. The IGP
reports to the secretary of the Ministry of Defense (in a separate chain of command
from that of the armed forces and other military units). The 5,850-member paramilitary
Special Task Force (STF) is within the structure of the SLPS, although joint operations
with military units in the recent defeat of the LTTE led to questions among observers
about who actually was directing the STF. Bureaucratic adjustments during the year
[2010] placed the police more firmly under the control of the Ministry of Defense.‖
8.03 The same source 122 added:
―Few police officers serving in Tamil majority areas were Tamil, and most did not speak
Tamil or English, although the government began hiring and training ethnic Tamils in an
effort to improve this situation. Estimates of ethnic Tamils and Muslims in the police
numbered several thousand. Since late in 2009 the government recruited approximately
500 new Tamil-speaking police from the Jaffna region to serve in the North Jaffna
Peninsula, and these officers underwent training for most of the year. There had been
concern that many of these newly hired officers were members of Tamil paramilitary
groups, but whether that concern was warranted was unclear. At year's [2010] end
more than 300 of these Tamil officers were within a week of graduating from training
and were scheduled to be posted in Tamil-speaking areas in the north. Among this
group were 20 women.‖
8.04 Jane‘s Sentinel Country Risk Assessments, Country Report, Sri Lanka 123 (accessed on
3 February 2012) noted:
―The Sri Lankan Police Service functions under the aegis of the Ministry of Home Affairs
but is currently in effect directly controlled by the president…Policemen are poorly paid
and susceptible to corruption at lower levels while at higher levels senior police officials
are often subject to political pressures. Human rights organisations have been highly
critical of the Sri Lankan police, the rapid expansion and poor training of which have
contributed to lack of professionalism. The senior officer of the Sri Lanka police is the
inspector general (IG), and organised into five geographical commands (known as
Ranges) covering the northern, eastern, western, southern regions and a separate
121 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
122 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
123 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
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.
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