Sri Lanka policemen still training in India
New Delhi - Forty-four Sri Lankan policemen who hurriedly quit Tamil Nadu after protests by some political parties there are still training in India, learning more about crime detection which their chief says is ‘very useful’.
The policemen have simply relocated from Tamil Nadu to Madhya Pradesh and are continuing with training that has nothing to do with the ethnic conflict in the island, Sri Lanka’s Inspector General of Police Chandra Fernando said.
‘My men are still in your country. This is part of a bilateral training programme that has gone on for a long time,’ Fernando told IANS over telephone from his office in Colombo.
He said Sri Lankan policemen routinely traveled to India to know more about traditional policing, law and order, investigation skills, management skills and crime investigation.
Fernando, who took up his present post in 2004, said his 65,000-strong force saw in India a good place to sharpen their knowledge.
‘We find the courses very useful,’ he said, recalling his own stint in India. ‘Our problems are the same; the culture, the religion, so many things are same. When we go to India, we feel we are going to our own institute. Only the penal code is different, but even that we have taken from you.
‘The challenges in India are similar to ours. You people also do a lot of research and study; you spend a lot of money on this. Indian trainers are good, the institutes are good.’
The Sri Lankan policemen were undergoing training in Coimbatore city from July when a section of Tamil Nadu politicians demanded their exit, alleging that Sri Lankan security forces were killing innocent Tamils in the island nation.
MDMK general secretary Vaiko even shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying ‘it was shocking that the policemen were being trained at the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) college in Coimbatore … which terribly hurts Tamil sentiments’.
Sri Lankan officials had then insisted that the training was only of an ‘administrative nature’.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi announced on Aug 4 in the state assembly that the Sri Lankans had left. Most people thought they had gone home. But they shifted to Madhya Pradesh, where too the CRPF runs a major training institute.
Fernando, 60, said most Sri Lankan police officers going to India were inspectors in charge of police stations and spent three to four weeks. The more senior officers came for shorter durations.
Most police personnel in Sri Lanka are drawn from the majority Sinhalese community. It also has many Muslims and some Tamils.
The policemen have simply relocated from Tamil Nadu to Madhya Pradesh and are continuing with training that has nothing to do with the ethnic conflict in the island, Sri Lanka’s Inspector General of Police Chandra Fernando said.
‘My men are still in your country. This is part of a bilateral training programme that has gone on for a long time,’ Fernando told IANS over telephone from his office in Colombo.
He said Sri Lankan policemen routinely traveled to India to know more about traditional policing, law and order, investigation skills, management skills and crime investigation.
Fernando, who took up his present post in 2004, said his 65,000-strong force saw in India a good place to sharpen their knowledge.
‘We find the courses very useful,’ he said, recalling his own stint in India. ‘Our problems are the same; the culture, the religion, so many things are same. When we go to India, we feel we are going to our own institute. Only the penal code is different, but even that we have taken from you.
‘The challenges in India are similar to ours. You people also do a lot of research and study; you spend a lot of money on this. Indian trainers are good, the institutes are good.’
The Sri Lankan policemen were undergoing training in Coimbatore city from July when a section of Tamil Nadu politicians demanded their exit, alleging that Sri Lankan security forces were killing innocent Tamils in the island nation.
MDMK general secretary Vaiko even shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying ‘it was shocking that the policemen were being trained at the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) college in Coimbatore … which terribly hurts Tamil sentiments’.
Sri Lankan officials had then insisted that the training was only of an ‘administrative nature’.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi announced on Aug 4 in the state assembly that the Sri Lankans had left. Most people thought they had gone home. But they shifted to Madhya Pradesh, where too the CRPF runs a major training institute.
Fernando, 60, said most Sri Lankan police officers going to India were inspectors in charge of police stations and spent three to four weeks. The more senior officers came for shorter durations.
Most police personnel in Sri Lanka are drawn from the majority Sinhalese community. It also has many Muslims and some Tamils.
posted by Anonymous at 8/13/2006 11:10:00 AM
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