On Friday July 25 a lady returned to the residents’ administrative office at The Monarch, Crescat City, Colombo 3, and informed them that she had gone to obtain a police residents pass to Kollupitiya police station, but that the police had turned her away stating that they were not issuing any more passes.

Another resident who was present also obtained a letter stating that he was a resident of The Monarch and visited the police station later that day to obtain a pass. A police officer read the letter, and informed the resident that they were not issuing any passes. The resident stated that the press had publicised the requirement for passes for residents of the area to gain access, but the police officer in the presence of others laughed it off, stating that although it’s in the press he was not aware of any such procedure.

The resident noted down the name of the officer as Amarawansa. (17851). The resident requested the name and telephone number of the OIC, but an inaccurate telephone number had been provided, as later confirmed by the OIC himself.

On Thursday morning the police blocked the road at Kollupitiya junction and started demanding passes from residents who wanted access to their homes. The resident who had not been provided with a pass went through the barrier on two occasions that day and when requested a pass he showed the residents letter and stated that Amarawansa (17851) had stated that no pass was required. He was allowed through after some altercation.

On the third occasion later that evening, a new police team on duty at Kollupitiya junction simply refused to let the resident and his family back to his apartment at The Monarch in Crescat City. They were now marooned at Kollupitiya junction and the resident after demanding he be allowed to return to his home, stopped the vehicle and walked to the police station leaving his family behind in the vehicle to resolve the issue.

At the police station he met SI Ransil, who was polite and stated that a pass was necessary and gave the form to be filled and requested a photograph. He gave instructions to allow the vehicle through.

When the resident walked back to his vehicle at Kollupitiya junction, he found his wife and family distraught.  In his absence, a police officer 6199 on special duty from Monaragala carrying his AK 47 weapon had approached the vehicle and wagged his finger at the ladies and the children in the vehicle and stated "api Sinhala, mathaka-thiya-ganna ( We are Sinhalese, remember that!)".

It was not clear what brought on this tribalism. Perhaps the police are not used to residents protesting when the police are violating the fundamental rights of citizens who are prevented from returning to their own homes. It had been asked if the Supreme Court gives the police the authority to stop people from returning to their homes.

When the lady in the vehicle, a lawyer, complained about the behaviour of the "api Sinhala" policeman, the other policemen and an officer present had laughed and dismissed the protest, condoning and encouraging this kind of behaviour. It seems that not only does tribalism and racism exist in the Sri Lankan police force, but they get their thrills from bullying women and children after the husband had left the scene.

The following day the OIC was apologetic and put the problem down to thousands of policemen from rural areas being posted to Colombo for the SAARC summit having a different frame of mind.

One would expect the Sri Lankan police force to operate on the concept of citizenship in a modern democratic republic and it was not clear which part of police training result in "api Sinhala" tribalism. The occupants of the vehicle were offended by the blatant racism and the impunity being condoned by the other policemen and the officer present.

She was concerned of the impact if the occupants had been Muslim or Tamil, with "api Sinhala" and the other Sinhala policemen and officer laughing when the lady protested. In Colombo CMC limits, minority Tamil speakers (Muslim and Tamil) are in a majority. This ethnic proportionality is not reflected in the police force or the other services in the CMC area.

The OIC had suggested that during this kind of incident one should not get involved in altercations with ordinary police officers and had provided his telephone numbers and wanted the resident to directly contact him. Senior officers of the airforce have also made similar comments in the past about their men deployed on the ground.

But the problem is that ordinary citizens do not have access to OIC’s and senior officers of the armed forces to resolve their disputes and are at the mercy of the "api Sinhala" tribalist types and mind set.

A senior surgeon in Colombo who was aware of the incident commented that this kind of tribal attitudes with impunity would have created many terrorists and that they will create more terrorists in the future and Sri Lanka will be in a constant state of conflict until there are systems put in place to deal with these inherent tribal attitudes. He too stated that he had faced similar incidents at check points and of authorities dealing with his Tamil domestics with little humanity.