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Key role for security forces

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka has said security forces would play a key role in the country’s development drive, even as Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader V. Anandasangaree, in a letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday, said what the people of the north “want is real ‘spring’ and not an agency rule”.

Participating at the biggest ever commissioning parade in the history of the Diyatalawa Military Academy, in which 281 Officer Cadets passed out on Saturday, Mr. Wickramanayaka said the forces would play a pivotal role in rebuilding efforts in the conflict-ravaged north and east. Describing the Sri Lankan Security Forces as the best in the world, he suggested that by defeating the world’s foremost terrorist outfit and its leader, they had proven the fact beyond doubt.

However, the victory against LTTE terrorists was not a “walk in the park” but was achived at the cost of a “lot of sacrifices” by the security forces, he added.

In his letter Mr. Anandasangaree focused on the “prevailing situation” in Jaffna, where local body elections are due in August, and said it was contrary to Mr. Rajapaksa’s expectations of a “spring” in Jaffna.

“What the people here are experiencing is a silent cyclone, that stared at the time Jaffna was liberated 12 years back, gradually gained momentum and has now reached its climax with the abundance of facilities, made available to certain individuals, that are misused at random,” it said.

Talking of “constrains in restoring democracy back to its past glory in the north” the letter said the gun culture that had got deeply rooted, particularly in the north and the east, remained in spite of the sacrifices of the forces and the people to gain freedom.

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