Sri Lankan authorities admitted yesterday that members of the security forces have constituted virtual criminal groupings engaged in abduction and murder in the civilian population.

Colombo (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Police and security force personnel have been arrested over several unresolved abductions and murders that have marked the country’s 20-year-old civil war. The authorities are cautious but the evidence points to a criminal organisation inside the law enforcement community.

Deputy Inspector General of the police's Foreign Intelligence Department Ashoka Wijethileka said yesterday said the arrests did take place but added that “that does not mean we have fully and completely investigated the whole thing.” He did acknowledge though that such crimes might be the work of organised groups within the security forces.

For his part Inspector General of Police Victor Perera said that more than 400 people were arrested as part of a police operation to crack down on abductions and disappearances since September, but he did not say how many of those were serving members of the security services, preferring instead to say that the crimes are probably “being done to discredit the government.”

Sri Lanka's Human Rights Commission said that nearly 100 abductions and disappearances have been reported so far this year in the capital Colombo, the eastern district of Batticaloa and the besieged northern Jaffna peninsula.

All these areas are under government control whilst most victims are Tamil. Abductions are more commonplace in rebel-held areas.

About a thousand of such cases have been reported in 2006 since the resumption of the civil war that has killed around 68,000 people since 1983, including more than 4,000 people killed in the past 15 months.

Very few kidnap victims ever return home.

Human rights groups and foreign governments have blamed elements in the military as well as Tamil Tiger rebels and renegades for abductions and murders.

Many analysts have blamed elements within the government for these crimes.

Just yesterday the bullet-riddled bodies of five people were found in a field in the north-central district of Anuradhapura, burnt beyond recognition. This follows the discovery of five other bodies near the capital on Saturday, victims of execution-style killings.

UN envoy Allan Rock said he has credible evidence that elements within the security forces have helped to abduct children to press into service as soldiers for a former band of Tamil Tiger rebels who broke away from the mainstream group in 2004 and are now called the Karuna faction.

The government has angrily rejected all these allegations.

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