From: jey@micronics.com (Jey Kumarasurier)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: Still Happening...........
Date: 7 Apr 92 15:27:22 GMT
Article-I.D.: micronic.1992Apr7.152722.4094
Organization: Micronics Computers



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 ||       "Believe It or Not , It is Still Happening Back There"            ||
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RTw  04/06 0516  EX-POLICEMAN ACCUSES COLOMBO GOVERNMENT OF MURDER

    COLOMBO, April 6, Reuter - A feared former Sri Lankan policeman has
accused the government and ruling party politicians of murdering dozens
of young men and women in a brutal crackdown on leftwing militants two
years ago.

    Breaking a long silence, retired deputy inspector-general of police
Premadasa Udugampola said United National Party (UNP) politicians were
responsible for the crimes he was once blamed for.

    "Those operating the Black Cats (hit squads), and those were UNP
politicians, found my presence...a convenient cover for the activities
of the Cats. The political authorities found this most convenient," he
said in a statement to local newspapers published on Monday.

    Udugampola has been asked to present himself to police for
questioning in connection with the death of a human rights lawyer in
police custody. Three other policemen have already been sentenced in
the case.

    Udugampola was believed to be one of the men responsible for a
ruthless crackdown on Sinhalese leftwing rebels in 1988 to 1990. His
mother and some members of his family were killed by the rebels.

    Thousands of young men and women were killed by death squads widely
believed to include army men and bodyguards of ruling party
politicians.

    Their bodies were left with burning tyres by the roadside or at
rivers as a warning to others who opposed the government. The
southern-based revolt was brutally put down by the armed forces.

    At the time, Udugampola controlled police operations in the
troubled southern districts of Matara and Hambantota and later in Kandy
in the central region.

    Udugampola said it was a fact that he had hit hard at the leftwing
People's Liberation Front and crippled them.

    But he said the Black Cats group, formed in 1988 and made up of men
supplied by UNP politicians, was responsible for all the killings of
mainly opposition supporters.

    "Any probe into human rights violations has to investigate this
area of activity...," he said.

    "I too can certainly help but I am certain that no such
investigation can be held or will be held by the present regime because
it is involved up to its chin."

    Udugampola said it was the Black Cat terrorism that helped the UNP
win elections in 1989.

    The 56-year-old policeman was forced to retire last January and
sent on compulsory leave beforehand -- a few days before foreign
donors, who criticised the government for its human rights record, met
to discuss Colombo's needs.