After 70 years of independence from British rule the Sri Lankan Government today urged Tamils to join the Police force in the North and East. The Police and Military have been dominated of 99% of Sinhalese from South to date. Tamils were marginalised and were not requited to join the forces since the Independence in 1948.
For the first time in Sri Lanka a Sinhala Minister of Law and Order Ranjith Madduma Bandara told Parliament that the Police would like to have more Tamils in the Police force.
Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) leader Douglas Devananda said that some Tamils have already submitted applications to join the Police in the North but their applications were not considered simply because they were Tamils.
Devananda also noted that there was a rise in crime related incidents in the North and they cannot be simply dismissed by saying they are being committed by youth influenced by South Indian Tamil movies.
Ranjith Madduma Bandara said that the Police are investigating some of the recent crimes in Jaffna and have arrested several suspects. He also said that there was no evidence to link the crimes to any politician.
It is known fact that even in North and East police stations are run by Sinhale speaking officers who are unable to communicate with the locals and some criminals take advantage of this situation and has close links to the police officers who trusts these criminals to be there informers hence the police officers are misled and have lost confidence among the community has the community believes that the police are working with the local criminals and benefiting.