COLOMBO, 23 August 2007 — Hundreds of ethnic minority Tamils have applied to join Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese-dominated police force for duty in the troubled east where the military recently routed Tamil separatists, a spokesman said yesterday.
Around 4,000 new police officers are required for the Tamil-majority eastern region and the government plans to enlist recruits locally, police spokesman Jayantha Wickremaratne said.
Government forces, last month, captured the last Tamil Tiger base in the east, a victory that gave the government control of the region for the first time in 13 years. Wickremaratne said already five new police stations have opened in newly captured areas and 11 more will be created shortly.
He said of the 421 applications received so far, 224 were from ethnic Tamils and 193 from Muslims who also speak Tamil, but consider themselves a distinct ethnic group. The majority of ethnic Tamils are Hindus.
“That’s a good sign. We need police officers who can speak Tamil,” Wickremeratne said, adding it would help better serve people in the area. Muslims are Sri Lanka’s second-largest minority after Tamils and generally oppose the Tamil Tiger rebels.
The Sri Lankan police force is predominantly Sinhalese, the country’s majority ethnic group, but there are also some Tamil and Muslim officers. The Sinhalese majority is primarily Buddhist.
Tamils have long accused the Sinhalese-dominated governments of discrimination in government jobs and education.
Meanwhile, Sri Lankan warplanes pounded a Tamil Tiger naval base in the volatile north yesterday, the military said, but the rebels said a civilian area was hit.
