Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, Member of Parliament and Member of the Steering Committee of the Progressive Women’s Collective, says that the police are there not for violence but for the defence of the people and the absence of public trust in the police is extremely dangerous.
She emphasizes that the police are there to protect us and that the police are the place to make complaint on our issues and that there is a separate children’s and women’s unit to ensure the safety of the women or children who go there.
However, she points out that when the officers in the police behave in this manner, no confidence build up in people over the police and the institutional system. It is a great tragedy, the response of police to the children and women, become oppressive.
The culture within the police is a very serious problem and anyone could see developing of anti-feminist ideas and violent views on women in the police during this period. These are not problems that can be solved with military training, but Minister Sarath Weerasekara has a great responsibility to explain how the police should deal with the community, added MP Harini Amarasuriya.
Range of incident from the protests against the Kotalawala Act to the sexual harassment of a woman at the Padukka police station; emerge the serious question, could we continue to trust the police? she said. She added that she sent a letter to the Human Rights Commission requesting that issue guidelines to the police, in this regard.
She was speaking at a press conference held on 19th which organized by the ‘Women against Violence’.
-Shani-