More than 500 ethnic Tamils and Muslims have so far applied to become police officers in the recently taken over Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, a Deputy Inspector General of Police said.
“The majority of them are ethnic Tamils and Muslims, which is a good news for us as we need more Tamil speaking officers to serve in the East,” said Jayantha Wickramaratne, Deputy Inspector General of Police.
He said more than 4,000 new police officers are needed to serve in the Eastern Province, which had been under the occupation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The province is ethnically diversified, but the Tamils and most of the Muslims speak only Tamil.
He said new police stations will be opened at Vavunathivu, Vakarai, Aithimalai, karadiyanaru and 11 more places. New police posts also will be opened at 42 stations to secure the civilian settlements in the area, he said.
He said two deputy inspector generals of police are traveling in the Ampara and Batticaloa areas these days, helping the process of receiving applications through the Grama niladharis of the area.
Asked whether the cadres of the LTTE will be eliminated from joining the police force, the DIG said under law all recruits to the armed forces and the police should have a clean record not only of themselves but also of their families. No person with any criminal past will be recruited to the police, he said.
He said the police will be seeking the assistance of the Official languages Department interpreters in the training of the police officers, although the police already have some officers who are proficient in Tamil.
In addition, to help the Tamil speaking people to lodge their complaints in their own language -- a human right requirement of the local people, the police department is going to employ retired Tamil government servants proficient in both languages at every police station, the police spokesman said.
There was a downward trend in applying for police positions among the Tamils as the LTTE used to target Tamil police officers, calling them traitors. They were specifically being gunned down for being Tamil police officers during the last two decades.
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