No military administration in Jaffna: Sri Lanka Army

The Sri Lankan Army has said there was no military administration in Tamil-dominated Jaffna and denied allegations by Chief Minister of the Northern Province CV Wigneswaran that more troops had been deployed in the area after a riot in mid-May.

Major General Nandana Thuduwewatta, the Security Forces Commander in Jaffna, told reporters that the military has placed itself according to the defence requirements and there was no excessive deployment of troops.

"The police continues to maintain security. The military is not involved in the civilian administration." He denied claims by Tamils that after the riots in Jaffna mid-May, more troops had been deployed there. A civilian protest over a gang-rape a female student saw damages being caused to the Jaffna court complex. Over 130 people were arrested for the riot.

Wigneswaran last week charged that there was a ratio of 5-6 military people per civilian in the northern Jaffna peninsula. "There are 150,000 Army in Jaffna," he had said. Thuduwewatta said over 19,000 acres of civilian lands held by the military during the over three decades old conflict has been gradually released to their owners since 2009.

The recent decision to release the lands occupied by the army in Jaffna to their owners has not resulted in any threat to national security, Thuduwewatta said. The military chief also denied accusations that the military was behind the proliferation of drugs and alcohol in Jaffna.

"We are a very disciplined Army so we reject such allegations," Thuduwewatta said responding to the Tamil charge that since the defeat of the LTTE the drugs and alcohol have become freely available in Jaffna as a ploy by the military to make the northern youth drug addict. Since the government troops defeated the LTTE in 2009, Tamils and the international community have called for de-escalation of militarisation in the north. 

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