General Fonseka says more troops needed to ensure peace in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 August 2009, 05:44 GMT]
General Sarath Fonseka, Chief of Defence Staff, said that resettlement of internally displaced people from Vanni now housed in temporary camps in Vavuniyaa will not be carried out haphazardly as dictated by some interested parties. He said so when he called on the prelate of Malwatte Most Venerable Tibbotuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Thera and on the prelate of Asgiriya Most Ven. Udugama Sri Buddharakkitha Thera Monday to mark the third month of ‘liberating’ the country from LTTE.

Earlier he paid homage to the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy.

General Sarath Fonseka told the prelates that the IDPs could not be resettled in their former homesteads immediately because of security risks.

“There are many more land-mines to be removed. The IDPs in camps should be screened since there are LTTE cadres among them,” he said.

“At least five or six LTTE cadres are identified every week,” he added.

“There are no plans to cut down the number of the security forces in the North. Only 15,000 cadres were deployed to recover Jaffna but now 35,000 of them are required to ensure peace there. It is essential to ensure security in the entire region liberated from the control of the LTTE for the people to live without fear and suspicion. More members are now required to maintain security in the north as more land area has come under the purview of the security forces. Normalcy will return to North after the recovery of explosives concealed by the LTTE,” General Sarath Fonseka said.

The prelates of Malwatte and Asgiriya urged General Sarath Fonseka to take precautions against any re-attempt by the terrorists to create disaster.