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.

"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