Lankan police, troops involved in abductions
Admits police chief
Afp, Colombo
Sri Lanka's police admitted yesterday that its own security personnel have been involved in kidnappings for ransom and vowed to crack down on mounting abductions and killings of civilians. Police Inspector General Victor Perera said a "large number" of police officers and troops had been arrested on charges of abduction and extortion. His remarks came as five bullet-riddled bodies of unidentified men turned up in the north central district of Anuradhapura Tuesday following a similar discovery of five bodies near the capital on Saturday. The police chief said the identity of the victims was not immediately known but offered "unlimited money" as a reward for information leading to the arrest of those involved in kidnappings. He said among 433 people arrested since September over "terrorist activities," including abductions and killings, a large number were either police, soldiers or deserters. "We have arrested a large number of police and servicemen and even an employee of the defence ministry in connection with these activities," Perera said. "There is a lot of attention by foreign organisations on the human rights situation here, and these killings and abductions cause big problems for the government internationally," Perera said. He said a team of UN experts was currently visiting the island to assess the island's human rights situation. Top police detective Asoka Wijetilleke also said elements in the service were working together with "underworld gangs" to abduct, extort money and kill people, but there could be other groups also operating with impunity. "The magnitude of the problem is yet to be assessed. There are... groups which include ex-servicemen, serving soldiers and policemen and underworld gangs," Wijetilleke said. He said the police were yet to complete investigations into the involvement of their own men in the extra-judicial killings and abductions, while authorities were yet to start investigations into "other groups." International human rights organisations have said rights abuses have increased amid the escalating conflict between troops and separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas. Local officials said that more than 60 people, mostly civilians, had been killed as a result of the conflict in the northern town of Vavuniya, which is a de facto frontier post for the government, in the past two months alone. The Tiger rebels and the military have pointed fingers at each other for the increased killings. At least 4,000 people have been killed since December 2005, despite a truce struck five years ago in line with a peace initiative by Norway.
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