SRI LANKA: DEFENSE SECRETARY OUTLINES PLAN FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 001113 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INS AND PM MCC FOR D NASSIRY AND E BURKE E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/02/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PHUM MOPS CE SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: DEFENSE SECRETARY OUTLINES PLAN FOR DISARMING KARUNA Classified By: Charge d'Affaires James R. Moore, for reasons 1.4(b, d). ¶1. (C) Defense Secretary (and brother of the President) Gothabaya Rajapaksa told Charge and Pol Chief on August 9 of his plans to stabilize the security environment in Sri Lanka's East, where government forces recently routed the remaining regular Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) forces. Gothabaya said he felt it was imperative to integrate Tamils and Muslims into the security forces in the East, especially the police. He noted that at present, the security forces are almost exclusively from the majority Sinhalese community, which is undesirable in the ethnically mixed East. ¶2. (C) One source for Tamil police recruits, Gothabaya thought, could be young cadres of the so-called Karuna faction, an anti-LTTE, Tamil paramilitary which draws its strength primarily from Eastern Tamils. Charge observed that the priority should be to disarm the Karuna faction. Gothabaya agreed, but said it would be a complex, difficult undertaking to disarm the Karunas, and there would need to be confidence-building mechanisms within the disarmament process. ¶3. (C) Gothabaya told us that there had been several cases of ransom operations conducted by the Karuna group in the East. He had given strict orders that the ransom-taking must stop, he said, and directed that two "sub-leaders" of the Karuna group who were "out of control" be arrested. ¶4. (C) Gothabaya observed that there had formerly been Tamils among the police force in the East, but that most of these had been killed by the LTTE, which discouraged others from joining. What Sri Lanka needed, under the government's proposed devolution plan and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, were separate provincial or district-level police forces, with independent police commissioners - perhaps elected ones, along the lines of U.S. local sheriffs. Gothabaya said it was important that the future police of the East be seen as impartial, non-discriminatory, and disciplined. This would require significant retraining of Karuna cadres. He said was considering sending some of them to India for reindoctrination and training. ¶5. (C) COMMENT: Given the violent history of Karuna's movement, first as an integral part of the LTTE, later as a feared and hated paramilitary force and criminal organization, we have serious reservations about the suitability of Karuna cadres as future police recruits. Nevertheless, we are encouraged that the Defense Secretary, known for his hardline views, is aware of the ethnic imbalance in the police forces, considers it a problem to be corrected, and is thinking, albeit in long-range terms, of the need to disarm the Karuna faction and how to go about it. MOORE