Document #1054590
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
No specific information is available to the
IRBDC at the present time regarding threats distinctly made against
individual police officers and their families. However, police have
been the targets of both the LTTE and the JVP in the past. The
Tamil group, the LTTE, consider the police a component of the
Sinhalese-led government they are fighting. Attacks on police
stations have been carried out in retaliation for attacks on
civilian population by the Sri Lankan Army. In one incident, at
least 40 policemen were killed in November of 1984 when the station
at Chavakacheri was destroyed by Tamil extremists. ["Sri Lanka:
Battle Lines", India Today 15 December 1984, p. 88.] The
JVP, on their part, have vowed to kill anyone who supports the
government's peace efforts with the Tamil guerillas. ["Soldiers
told to shoot demonstrators", The Toronto Star 10 November
1988.] This would appear to include the police, who are a readily
identifiable symbol of the Colombo government.
Please consult the attached documentation
for further examples of violence against Sri Lankan police.
ATTACHMENTS
"Soldiers told to shoot demonstrators",
The Toronto Star, 10 November 1988.
"Slaughter in village is linked to
Tamils", The Globe and Mail, 11 October 1988.
"Sri Lanka Capital is an Armed Camp",
The New York Times, 11 October 1988.
"Tamil land mine kills 8 people", The
Globe and Mail, 14 September 1988.
"Violences au Sri Lanka", Le
Devoir 3 Juin 1988.
Seth Mydans, "Sinhalese Extremists Gain
Force in Sri Lanka", The New York Times, 26 March 1988.
Manik de Silva, "Militants and
ministers", Far Eastern Economic Review, 14 January 1988, p.
34.
Steven R. Weisman, "Sri Lanka Fighting
Setback for Pact", The New York Times, 20 September 1987, p.
A17.
Bryan Johnson, "Tamil Tiger militants
kill Sri Lankan officers despite Indian escort", The Globe and
Mail, 9 October 1987.
, "Sri Lanka's peacemaker makes
Sinhalese seethe", The Globe and Mail, 5 October 1987, p.
D3.
"Sri Lanka: Battle Lines", India
Today, 15 December 1984, p. 88.
Virginia A. Leary, Ethnic Violence in
Sri Lanka, (Geneva: International Commission of Jurists, 1983),
p. 27,75