A complaint has been made to the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI) by a Tamil widow whose relatives were massacred in 1986 by an elite Sri Lankan police unit which maintained a close relationship with the RUC.

The complaint comes following the publication of research into Britain’s role in training and shaping Sri Lanka’s Special Task Force (STF).

From 1983 to 2009, Sri Lankan forces fought against an insurgency by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as the Tamil Tigers, who sought to create an independent state for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority.

Sri Lanka eventually won the 26-year conflict, during which between 60,000 and 100,000 people are thought to have been killed, but there remain serious allegations of human rights violations and war crimes.

A report published by the International Human Rights Association - Bremen states: “Throughout 1983, British security officials advised senior Sri Lankan policemen on the UK’s counter-terrorism experience in Northern Ireland, even arranging for them to visit Belfast.”

It also alleges that “British strategy was crucial in designing and nurturing Sri Lanka’s elite paramilitary STF, which was responsible for massacres and torture of Tamils”.

Solicitor Darragh Mackin of Belfast-based KRW Law is representing the woman, unnamed for safety reasons, who says that 10 members of her family were murdered by the Special Task Force.

Mr Mackin told Irish Legal News: “It is a matter of grave concern that the RUC were involved in the atrocities of another jurisdiction, which resulted in the mass murder of our client’s family.

“A complaint has now been lodged with PONI in an attempt to ensure, for the first time, accountability of the RUC’s actions in the Sri Lankan conflict and the crimes committed against the Tamil people.”

A spokesperson for the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland said: “We have received a complaint relating to the actions of police officers during the 1980s, and this is now being considered.”