Sri Lanka recruits Tamil policemen in east

The Sri Lankan government said Wednesday that it has recruited 175 new police officers from the Tamil minority in the newly liberated Eastern Province and more Tamil police personnel would be recruited in the near future.

Keheliya Rambukwella, the government's defense spokesman and the minister of Foreign Employment told reporters that the 175 police officers have come from some 1,200 applications received and it justified the governmemt's move to recapture the province from the control of Tamil Tiger rebels.

"It is the government's policy to allow for the public to attend to their needs in their own language," Rambukwella said, adding that Tamil people in the east would be able to freely communicate with the Tamil police personnel in the province.

He said the large number of applicants have shown that people are happy to free themselves from the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The LTTE was evicted from the province by government troops in July last year.

The LTTE dubbed it a tactical withdrawal from the province which is part of their ultimate goal of a separate homeland for the Tamils.

Rambukwella said 250 more Tamil police personnel would be recruited as the next stage of the government's plan to restore civil administration in the province.

The government has embarked on a massive development drive worth 6.5 billion Sri Lanka rupees (about 59.9 million U.S. dollars) in the province, Rambukwella added.

Government troops and the LTTE are currently engaged in fierce battles in the north. The government is determining to defeat the LTTE, but refrains from giving a time frame.

The LTTE has been fighting the troops since the mid-1980s to carve out a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in the north and east.

Source: xinhuanet