COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan armed forces have denied former President Mahinda Rajapaksa' s charge that the Maithripala Sirisena government has closed 59 army camps in the Tamil-dominated Northern Province, thus endangering national security.
"Since this government came into existence in January this year, not a single camp has been closed.Some outposts were closed between April 2009 and July 2014 during the earlier regime," said Brig.Jayanath Jayaweera, the military spokesman.
As regards the return of lands to civilians in the North, Brig.Jayaweera said that the previous regime had returned 44, 583 acres in five lots after the end of the war in 2009.The present government has given back one thousand acres in one lot since it came to power in January this year. The closure of army camps, giving back lands to the Tamil civilians or even talking to the Tamil Diaspora are seen by sections of the Sinhalese majority as harming national security rather than as steps to promote ethnic reconciliation.