500 signatures reached
To: Police Scotland - Sir Stephen House, Chief Constable
Police Scotland stop training Sri Lanka's police now!
Please do not renew Police Scotland’s contract to train Sri Lankan police officers.
Why is this important?
The Sri Lankan police has a long history of human rights abuses and vicious attacks.
Amnesty International’s latest annual report into Sri Lanka alleged that unlawful detentions and torture by security forces were carried out routinely. Since 2007, the Scottish Police College has trained thousands of Sri Lankan officers - including some senior commanders. But training has failed to protect human rights in Sri Lanka.
Siobhan Reardon, Amnesty International's programme director in Scotland, said: “Human rights campaigners and family members of people subjected to enforced disappearance were threatened and arrested, and fatal attacks on religious minorities went unpunished.”
Also a UN report commissioned by secretary general Ban Ki-Moon found that as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in the last months of the civil war in May 2009, mostly through indiscriminate shelling by Sri Lankan security forces.
The police training reform project is funded by the Foreign Office (FCO), was supposed to embed "international standards in police training." But a recent FCO report found instances of torture, deaths in police custody, police abductions and instances of suspects shot and killed as they attempted to flee.
The current contract will end on 31 March 2015, but it could be renewed. Police Scotland should not enable human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. Please listen to the Scottish public, Tamil community and human rights campaigners.
Please sign this petition and stop Police Scotland enabling human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.
Tamil Solidarity and a number of diaspora campaigners support this petition.
Amnesty International’s latest annual report into Sri Lanka alleged that unlawful detentions and torture by security forces were carried out routinely. Since 2007, the Scottish Police College has trained thousands of Sri Lankan officers - including some senior commanders. But training has failed to protect human rights in Sri Lanka.
Siobhan Reardon, Amnesty International's programme director in Scotland, said: “Human rights campaigners and family members of people subjected to enforced disappearance were threatened and arrested, and fatal attacks on religious minorities went unpunished.”
Also a UN report commissioned by secretary general Ban Ki-Moon found that as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in the last months of the civil war in May 2009, mostly through indiscriminate shelling by Sri Lankan security forces.
The police training reform project is funded by the Foreign Office (FCO), was supposed to embed "international standards in police training." But a recent FCO report found instances of torture, deaths in police custody, police abductions and instances of suspects shot and killed as they attempted to flee.
The current contract will end on 31 March 2015, but it could be renewed. Police Scotland should not enable human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. Please listen to the Scottish public, Tamil community and human rights campaigners.
Please sign this petition and stop Police Scotland enabling human rights abuses in Sri Lanka.
Tamil Solidarity and a number of diaspora campaigners support this petition.
