Scotland Yard here in January amid friction

From Neville de Silva in London

Nadaraja Raviraj

Five detectives from Britain's Scotland Yard are expected in Colombo in the first week of January to assist in the investigation into the death of parliamentarian Nadaraja Raviraj who was assassinated by gunmen in Colombo in November.

Though President Mahinda Rajapaksa solicited Scotland Yard help immediately after the shooting, the departure of the British officers was delayed because Sri Lankan authorities were late in preparing the memorandum of understanding stating the parameters for assistance which needed British concurrence.

While the Metropolitan Police under which Scotland Yard functions was ready to send forensic experts and other investigators from its Homicide and Serious Crimes Unit, it was insistent that any persons found guilty and convicted would not be sentenced to death in keeping with British Government policy.
But the British authorities have also been irked by a three line clause inserted into the MoU stating that the foreign experts should not carry out a parallel investigation and only assist in the on-going inquiry.

British sources believe this was unnecessary as they had no intention of carrying out a "parallel investigation" and that they were ready to extend their help only because it was sought by President Rajapaksa.

The British had sought the advice of Australian authorities about the manner in which Australian forensic experts were treated in Sri Lanka after their help was called for after the killing of 17 aid workers in Mutur, reliable sources said.

The impression conveyed to the British was that the Australians felt that the Sri Lanka police did not make them feel welcome and treated them as though they were intruders, The Sunday Times understands.

According to these sources the British themselves are wondering whether they too would be cold shouldered when they get to Colombo. Although President Rajapaksa and the Defence Ministry seem eager to have British help, the police apparently are not too keen to have foreign help for whatever reasons, the sources said. In any case, some of the clues at the crime scene would already have been obliterated or destroyed, experts believe.

Scotland Yard is expected to send among others a forensic expert and a communications specialist who would help in establishing the mobile calls that were said to have been made between the killers and their handler.

If Sri Lankan police hamper the work of the British experts, sources here believe that the story will leak out to the media at some stage and it will not do Sri Lanka's image, already battered by controversial reports, any good.