Police, please wake up

OVER the years the problem of crime in Sri Lanka has grown to a complexity which seems to be defying all attempts at containing it. Considering the current crime rate, some would even say that the problem has assumed monstrous proportions.

To be sure, we have been saddled with a wasting ethnic conflict which has contributed in no small measure towards the militarization of Lankan society and rendered it severely violence-prone and wild.

However, while every effort should be made by the State to resolve the conflict politically, we cannot help reflecting that weak law-enforcement too has played a significant role in aggravating the problem of crime.

One of the problems which has been dogging us is that punishment has not been meted out to the wrong-doers expeditiously and effectively.

Meting out punishment is a many - dimensional thing and the law-enforcers alone could not be singled out for criticism on this score.

The justice system too has contributed amply to this disheartening situation and the problem of Law's Delays is such a hackneyed subject that no further comment is needed on it.

However, the Long Arm of the Law or the Police leaves so much to be desired in the performance of its day-to-day duties that the public could not be faulted for believing that something is rotten in the heart of the structures of the Police which interact with the people.

We wonder whether even the Police has kept a record of the crimes which have gone unsolved by it. Murders most foul are rife but very many suspects are not arrested and hauled-up before court.

Even if they are brought before the courts, justice is not expedited against them. In fact, cases are allowed to recede from our memory and end up in the Limbo of forgotten things. We now learn that even some files and records of VVIP killings have gone missing.

We do not intend to generalize our criticism of our law enforcers by making these observations. We concede readily that we are blessed with very many honest and efficient police officers.

However, we would be way off the mark if we say that the Police Department's general performance is heartening or encouraging.

Truly, if crime has reached unnerving proportions, it is because the Long Arm of the Law is not working at its best. This is not the sole reason for the escalation of crime in this country, but is a very important reason for its proliferation.

We call on the Police to take these views in the correct spirit and use them as a springboard for reform and rejuvenation. We would be proud to have a police force which is people-friendly, efficient and honest. May this wish be granted.

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Long road to justice in Cambodia

CAMBODIA is now an emerging economy, striving to complete with its neighbours in the race towards prosperity. But just two decades ago, it was a killing field. Up to two million people were executed or died of starvation and overwork between 1975 and 1979, when Pol Pot's genocidal Khmer Rouge attempted to impose an agrarian utopia.

It has taken an inordinately long period for the international community to ensure justice, through a specially constituted tribunal, for the victims of Pol Pot's genocide. Pol Pot died in 1998 - without never really facing any form of punishment.

Surviving members of the regime - including his top deputy Nuon Chea, former head of state Khieu Samphan and ex-foreign minister Ieng Sary - are in their 70s and 80s, prompting fears that they too could die before facing justice.

The wheels of justice are now turning, albeit slowly. UN-appointed foreign judges tasked with trying former leaders of the Khmer Rouge set down to work yesterday, raising hopes that members of the murderous regime may at last face justice.

The 17 Cambodian and 10 foreign jurists met behind closed doors for the first of four days of discussions about the objectives of the tribunal, expected to last three years.

On July 10, two prosecutors, one Cambodian and one foreign, will begin investigating the regime, and will decide which former senior members of the Khmer Rouge regime should face trial.

After six years of negotiations between the Government and the United Nations, hopes are naturally high in a country where the effects of Pol Pot's reign of torture, murder and starvation are felt everyday.

This is a victory for the ordinary Cambodians who have suffered enough under the Khmer Rogue. Most Cambodians still remember vividly those dark times during which their beautiful country turned into a land of savages.

There is also a post-Khmer Rouge generation that knows little or nothing about this unspeakable horror.

For the former, the tribunal will bring back painful memories; for the latter, it will be a time for becoming familiar with the darkest chapter in their country's history and realising the great sacrifice made by two million fellow citizens.

Compelling need to control 'Wild Cat' strikes

DURING the last few months we have witnessed a surfeit of strikes, demonstrations, protest marches and fasts, while posters have come up and the buildings and walls of some institutions have been plastered with slogans, some demanding salary increases, permanency for those on temporary and casual employment and others additional employment benefits.

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Colombo Diary:

Balasingham, a foil for Prabhakaran

RECENTLY, when the chief negotiator of the LTTE, Anton Balasingham, supposedly apologised for the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, one of the questions raised in the highest Indian circles was whether he represented the voice of supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.

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The roots of the US - North Korea nuclear stand-off

THE US - North Korea war of words on the nuclear issue, once again highlights problems inherent in the current global nuclear non-proliferation regime. In the latest unsettling salvo directed at the US, North Korea is on record that it would retaliate with an "annihilating strike" on the US if the latter resorts to a pre-emptive military strike against it.

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