Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa rejected allegations that the military is setting up camps all over the North and civilian land has been acquired for this purpose. He stated, rumours that the military has acquired land in Vanni for this purpose was absolutely baseless.

He made this statement while answering questions posed by the Commissioners of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission yesterday (17 Aug) at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies in Colombo.

He added that most of the camps in the North destroyed with the conflict will be rebuilt in existing locations and some of them will be relocated in state land according to current security requirements.

Secretary Defence said that in the Vanni region, all civilian land has been released. Government property occupied by the military too has been released to relevant local civil administrative authorities, he added.

Mr. Rajapaksa also refuted the allegation that housing settlements were established for military personnel. “Only military quarters for officers and men will be established inside the security centres,” he said. Some civilian lands in the High Security Zone (HSZ) acquired for security purposes in the Jaffna peninsula would be reduced and given to owners while others whose lands have to be kept to maintain certain essential security establishments would be provided with either compensation or alternative land, he said.

Secretary Defence also said that 500 Tamil police officers are undergoing training at Kalutara Police Training Institute and they will be deployed shortly to police stations in the North. He said that the Government aims for a gradual reduction of its military presence in the former conflict affected North to be replaced by the Police.

Pointing out that the pro-LTTE activities of expatriates and fund collections for weapons were continuing in many countries, Mr. Rajapaksa said that a certain amount of military presence in the Northern area would be required, especially naval deployment.

Secretary Defence said that the remaining LTTE cadres under custody will be rehabilitated as early as possible. Answering a question, he acknowledged that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has given instructions that all ex-LTTE cadres should be released before the end of two years of detention.