Colombo is campaigning to portray the continually escalating incidents of civilian murders, disappearance and robberies as being the result of individual enmities and family squabbles among the local population, civil sources in Jaffna said. Jaffna district Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Neville Padmadeva, speaking at a conference to explore the reasons for the increasing crimes, held in Jaffna’s Veerasingham Hall Friday, in the presence of NGOs, journalists and civil society members, advanced this view, according to attendees. Colombo is keen to divert the attention of the media and the international community from focusing on Sri Lanka Security forces saturating Jaffna district, and Colombo’s tacit sanction to Jaffna-deployed Sri Lanka soldiers and collaborating paramilitaries to create fear among the public to suppress dissent, civil sources in Jaffna said.
Referring to the abject lawlessness gripping the Jaffna district, Padmadeva told the audience that investigations by the Police have revealed that family, community related disagreements and grievances are the reason behind the murders, abductions and robberies.
However, the SSP failed to inform why Police has neither apprehended the criminals responsible for the crimes nor have released information on the suspects after such investigations, civil sources said.
SL military commander in Jaffna, Maj. Gen. Hathurusinghe, during a recent interview to an international news organization, had further provided an entirely different reason for the crimes in Jaffna, attributing the murders, abductions and robberies to the migrating labor force from the South to Jaffna.
The SSP in his address at Veerasingham Hall, further sought to assuage the public by saying that the public should demand to see the Identity Cards from anyone who visits any individuals house for investigations.
The SSP further said that the public has the power to arrest anyone who attacks the residents or commits a robbery inside the house, and that soon after apprehending the attacker the public should inform the police, the SSP had further said.
Many of these ills are also due to the lack of personnel and resources in the Police Department, and therefore, Humanitarian organizations and others where security is paramount, should employ private security personnel for added security, the SSP said.
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