Tamil widow files complaint with Northern Ireland police ombudsman over RUC links to Sri Lanka

by Sivakami
Jul 24, 2017

A Tamil widow has filed a complaint with the Northern Irish police's ombudsman over the Royal Ulster Constabulary's links to the Sri Lankan police force which was responsible for the massacre of 10 of her relatives in 1986, the Irish Times reported. 

Officers from Sri Lanka visited Belfast in 1983 in the wake of some of the worst killings of the Troubles to meet with the RUC's elite commando unit and "see at first hand the role of the police and army in counter-terrorist operations", British government files revealed. 

The Sri Lanka's notorious Special Task Force, which has been linked to a number of killings of Tamils over decades was modelled on the RUC's elite unit. 

“The Special Task Force would not have acquired the paramilitary characteristics of the Special Support Unit without the engagement between the RUC and the Sri Lankan Police," the complainant’s lawyer, Darragh Mackin was quoted by the Irish Times as saying. 

Vairamuttu Varadakumar, director of the Tamil Information Centre said, “we support the complainant’s efforts to seek accountability for the brutal violence against their family."

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