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| Wednesday, 3 December 2003 |
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On Presidential orders Probe into Trinco killings President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga yesterday ordered the Security Forces and Police to investigate the recent killings in Trincomalee and Kinniya, the President's Office said in a media statement. The statement said the President has been informed that the recent violence has taken an unusual turn. The total number of killings in the Trincomalee district during the ceasefire is 28. Out of them six have taken place during the last few days, it added. The statement identified that although the previous killings had been committed with sharp weapons while the recent murders have been carried out by grenade attacks by men who, it is revealed, came on bicycles. Local parliamentarians and civil society groups have demanded an immediate investigation into the recent murders which took place only a few days after the President took over the Defence Ministry, it said. In a move to improve the security situation, the number of security forces personnel in the area has been increased by one third and two special police information units have been set up. The statement said the Prime Minister has offered his total support for all these moves of the President. Meanwhile, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, earlier in the day following a meeting of the Muslim delegates and Defence Chiefs held at the President's House in Colombo, yesterday, directed the acting Inspector General of Police to immediately issue written instructions to the Police Stations in the Eastern Province to ensure the security of the Muslim community in the Eastern Province and arrest any person including LTTE cadres who are responsible for any breach of the peace in the Province, said a media release issued by the Presidential Media Unit yesterday. Yesterday's meeting at the President's House was attended by NUA leader MP Ferial Ashraff, MPs Hisbullah, Segu Izadeen, H.M.M. Haaris, and Noordeen Mashur, Defence Secretary Cyril Herat, Interior Ministry Secretary Junaid and Acting IGP Indra de Silva. This meeting was intended to explain the steps taken by the Security Forces since the recent attacks on Muslims in Kinniya and to ascertain further steps that have to be taken to ensure the security in the region. The President explaining the danger of spreading violence of this nature to other parts as in the past, instructed the IGP to establish forthwith Special Police Information Units in the Batticoloa and Ampara zones, similar to the one in the SSP's office of Trincomalie. She requested the MPs to report to these units even a minor incident involving the breach of law and order. She also instructed to set up new police posts while strengthening the existing ones and told the acting IGP to step up security measures by recruiting home guards. When the case of the shortage of vehicles in the Trincomalie Police was brought to her attention she instructed the acting IGP to obtain the vehicles in use in other police stations for the time being. She also instructed the DIG in Charge of Trincomalie not to leave his range until the situation was brought under control, stated the media release. According to the Presidential Media Release, NUA Leader Ferial Ashraff urged the President to take measures to build the confidence of security in the minds of the Muslim people and pointed out that a previous step to recruit 500 Muslims to the Police was thwarted at the instance of the LTTE and the TNA. Addressing the meeting MP Hisbullah said that defining the current situation in the East as a Tamil-Muslim conflict is a misnomer when the actual situation is seen by the Muslims as mayhem against the Muslims to drive them away from the Eastern Province as much as it was when the Sinhala and Muslim people were driven away from the Northern Province, stated the Media Release. |
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