Sri Lanka It's Happening

February 12, 2007

When I drove through Borella saturday morning there was a massive traffic jam. Nothing strange about that. It would have been a suprise if there wasn't much traffic there. What us unusual was the cause of the snarl up. It was a black BMW parked in the middle of the road with 'police line don't cross' strips all around it.

I thought it was a bomb scare and went on my way. Later, I heard on the news that there had been a shooting. No one will be suprised to hear that a man has been shot dead less than a 100 meters from the borella police stations. Sri Lanka's police force is woefully inefficient and almost totally corrupt. Borella is a barometer.

The police station is right in the middle of the Borella town close to the intersection. This is one of the busiest junctions in the city. Illegal pavement hawkers almost block acess to the police station entrance. No parking signs in the vicinity are observed in breach, thousands of pedestrians and jaywalk instead of using the subway which was built at a huge cost. Sometimes cops walk right besides the jaywalkers.

Vanathamulla, a notorius gangland hotspot is just a brisk walk away for an active policeman. Trouble is finding such a policemen is an extremely difficult task. They prefer to making illegal u-turns at the Mount Mary railway crossing to walking.

Posted by raditha at February 12, 2007 9:40 AM