JVP wants police promotions probed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 July 2004, 16:00 GMT]
The Sinhala Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government Tuesday requested Sri Lanka's President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge to order a full scale probe into the alleged irregularities in the recent promotion of police officers made by the National Police Commission (NPC), sources said.

Two weeks ago, eight-member National Police Commission promoted more than 3200 officers including reserve police constables with some of them receiving promotion letters at an event presided over by Ms Kumaratunge at President's House, sources said.

The criteria for police promotions are seniority and merit. However the main opposition United National Party (UNP) alleged that the track record of the officers appear to have been ignored in the promotion and police officers who faced fundamental rights violation charges and officers who were charged with murder, rape, bribery and corruption were among those promoted officers, sources said.

In one incident a Special Task Force (STF) Inspector who had been accused of killing Tamil youths and dumping them in the Bolgoda Lake soon after the People Alliance (PA) government was elected to office in 1994 was one of the police officers promoted. The said STF Inspector is now residing abroad, police sources said.