Facebook icon
Twitter icon
e-mail icon

Army camps are not anybody else's problem - Lt Gen Jayasuriya

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, the Sri Lankan Army's chief, Lt. General Jagath Jayasuriya, gave his take on the army's role in the North-East and rejected any criticism of the army camps as "not anybody else's" problem.

Jayasuriya said,

"It's not correct to say that there is one soldier for every five citizens in the north,"

"Like any other country we have camps and nobody can say a country cannot have camps,"

"Where the army deploys camps is my problem, not anybody else's,"

Defending the army's encroachment on civilian life, he added, 

"The Army is already in the barracks. When we are called upon we go,"

"Like any other army we were engaged in post conflict action to help the government machinery to restore everything back to normal, we are glad to say we have done that in three years."

"Reconstruction work we do it beyond civilian capacity. We do it faster and I'm sure people appreciate it,"

"We got involved in all aspects in the post war and that is the role of any army,"

"Armies are there to fight and restore normalcy. We are going to talk about our experiences and learn from other international military representatives at the seminar"

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.