Data on ethnic riots of 1983 hard to come by; Govt

25 March 2017 01:09 pm

It was revealed that data on ethnic riots that took place in July/August 1983 was currently not available in most police divisions in the country.

This was revealed in Parliament by Chief Government Whip Gayantha Karunatilake in response to an oral question raised by joint opposition MP Udaya Gammanpila, yesterday.
Data on the ethnic riots was not readily available due to documents decaying, the authorities wanting certain documents destroyed and ordering their destruction, complaints not been lodged at police stations, the documents being destroyed by natural calamities such as the tsunami in 2004 and floods as well as a lack of proper storage of documents at police stations in the war affected areas.(Yohan Perera)