New Police Station on Delft

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 January 1998, 23:59 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Inspector General of Police (IGP) W.B Rajaguru said today that he is taking steps to establish a Police station in the Delft island (Nedunthivu) with the assistance of the Navy. The IGP visited Jaffna this week to assess the situation and consult with his officers there about security arrangements for the polls during the campaign and on the day of the polls.

The Delft Police station will be established before the elections said Police sources in Colombo.

The IGP's decision comes amidst a litany of accusations that armed cadres of the EPDP in the islands off the peninsula are intimidating and preventing the other Tamil groups contesting the Jaffna local polls from carrying out their election campaign.

The island of Delft is far flung from the peninsula and remains quite isolated. It has its own local government body.

The Sri Lankan army and Navy are not present in the island. The heavily armed cadres of the EPDP dominate and control Delft.

The EPDP, meanwhile, told sections of the Tamil press today that the group is prepared to withdraw its armed cadres from the islands if the Sri Lankan army agrees to completely take over security there.

The other groups, however, scoffed down the EPDP proposal as another wily attempt by it to take everyone for a ride.