CBK wants report from Ranil within two weeks
'Curb high handed act of govt. politicos'

President Chandrika Kumaratunga wants Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to submit her a report within two weeks about action to prevent government party politicians from influencing and threatening police.

The President in a letter to PM had said that if the government fails to take action to change the situation she would be forced to do so on her own as the public had appealed her to do so, according to a spokesman.

The President charged that government politicians in many occasions during the recent past had threatened policemen who are not servile to them while influencing others who are willing to toe their line. In a letter to the Prime Minister she said that the Interior Minister nor the Ministry seem to be taking any action regarding the high handed action of UNP politicians.

She claims that the government had created a separate Ministry of Interior for the police in order to create a police state.

In her letter she had listed a number of incidents where police power had been used to control and intimidate opposition party members. These include a killing in Kirindiwela, the forcible detention of a girl in Orugodawatta, a threat by an MP to the Seeduwa police, an illicit liquor operation in Wennappuwa and election violence in Hanguranketha and Anamaduwa.