Bid to de-politicise police force

Sri Lanka's new Minister of Interior, John Amaratunga, yesterday declared that he would take all measures to de-politicise the police force, ending seven years of political intervention in the police force by the former regime.

Amaratunga told reporters that within the next two months the ruling United National Front (UNF) government will be able to establish an independent Police Commission under the recent constitutional amendments that were introduced before elections and make the police an independent body.

"The police has not be able to act impartially due to the interference from the political leadership. We cannot blame the police officers, but the political leadership should be blamed," Amaratunga.

The interior minister's reaction came amidst strong allegations against the police that they were not taking sufficient action against certain politicians and their supporters during the last few years and as a result some of the underworld gang members have been openly operating.

Amaratunga said as an initial step towards de-politicising the police force, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has ordered the police to take action against any of his party supporters who were allegedly getting involved in post-poll violence.

"We are very clear that the police need not take instructions from politicians as they have been doing in the past few years. We will change the situation so that the police can act independently" Amaratunga said.