Five Lanka cops held over death of students

Sri Lankan authorities arrested and suspended five police officers yesterday over the death of two Tamil students under suspicious circumstances in the former war-zone of Jaffna, the government said.
Police initially said the pair died in a motorbike accident just before midnight on Thursday in the Jaffna peninsula which saw some of the bloodiest fighting during Sri Lanka’s civil war that ended in 2009.
But authorities arrested the officers involved after it emerged that one of the victims had been shot dead, prompting fears of “a police coverup”, an official source said.
The government information department later issued a statement confirming that the five officers were arrested and suspended from their jobs in Jaffna, 400kms (250 miles) north of Colombo.
“All necessary steps have been taken to ensure that the law is properly implemented in this regard,” the statement said.
Years of harassment of the Tamil minority by Sinhalese-dominated security forces in northern Sri Lanka fuelled a nearly four-decade long ethnic conflict in the country.
Government forces still maintain a large presence in the former conflict zones and keep a close watch on the Tamil population despite the end of the war.
The latest incident in Jaffna came a day after a UN human rights expert asked Colombo to take urgent measures to “clearly demonstrate” its commitment to protect minorities.
The UN has been pushing for a special court to investigate allegations that up to 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed by government forces in the final months of fighting in 2009.
The country’s former government had resisted international calls to probe alleged killings but President Maithripala Sirisena, who came to power in January last year, has pledged accountability for war crimes under his predecessor and promised to promote
reconciliation.
Last week, President Sirisena took the unusual step of publicly condemning criminal charges brought last month against three retired admirals and the former defence secretary, the brother of his predecessor, Mahinda Rajapakse.
Military commanders who led the successful campaign to crush separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 should not be humiliated in such a way, said Sirisena, who ousted Rajapakse in a bitterly fought election in January 2015.
“I condemn the actions of FCID (Financial Crimes Investigations Division), the CID (Criminal Investigations Division) and the Bribery Commission,” he said at a meeting in Colombo.
“They should not work according to a political agenda. If they do, I will have to take stern action against them. I deplore their recent actions and I want to express my disgust.”
Analysts said the remarks signalled a rift between Sirisena and the national unity government led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, which oversees the FCID and the CID.
The two men are from rival parties, but made common cause to topple former strongman Rajapakse, whose entire family and closest associates face allegations of corruption as well as murder.
The three former admirals and ex-defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse stand accused of causing a loss of 11.4b rupees ($78mn) to the state through a private arms deal. They also face money laundering charges.
Anti-corruption activist Keerthi Tennakoon said Sirisena’s remarks signalled a widening rift within the uneasy coalition.