Scottish police to renew training contract with Sri Lanka despite torture

The Scottish police force is intending to renew its controversial training contract with its Sri Lankan counterparts despite ongoing allegations of the security forces widespread use of torture, The Ferret reported.

The training project which expired in March, was launched in 2012.

Defending the contract, Superintendent Shaun McKillop, of the Police Scotland’s International Development Unit, was quoted by
The Ferret as saying:
“Police Scotland is viewed as a worldwide exemplar of law enforcement training and has provided assistance to the Sri Lankan authorities on a project funded by the British High Commission to develop a National Police Academy, with the capacity to deliver accredited programmes.”

“The initial focus has been on the development of training modules in organisational management, ethical leadership and crime investigation supported by the development of academic governance systems and processes in Sri Lanka, and involved a series of deployments of subject specialists.”

“This project followed an earlier three year initiative to develop community policing in Sri Lanka, funded by the Scottish Government.”



“The last contract expired on 31st March 2016, however we are in dialogue with the British High Commission about a new contract for 2016/17 which will further the work already undertaken to develop the courses delivered by the National Police Academy, and building capacity in other key areas of policing.”

“We appreciate that the creation of a complete criminal justice system, following many years of civil war, is a long-term project for the Sri Lankan authorities, and are grateful for the opportunity to help them develop a system which is based on the highest ethical standards.”

See
here for full story.

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button