The government is engaged in an ambitious programme to establish permanent security forces bases in the Northern and Eastern Provinces as part of a strategy to thwart any possible attempt to revive LTTE terrorism. Authoritative government officials told The Island that the deployment of security forces in the Northern and Eastern Provinces as well as other parts of the country would be solely at the discretion of the military top brass.

In keeping with the government policy, the army has established the 68 Division headquarters at Sugandirapuram, Puthukudirippu east of the Kandy-Jaffna A9 road. Army Chief Lt. General Jagath Jayasuriya on Thursday (22) visited the new headquarters to meet senior officers and men deployed in the area.

Lt. General Jayasuriya told a gathering of men and officers that permanent bases were necessary to move security forces from private and public property currently occupied by them. Although the Jaffna peninsula had remained home to the largest concentration of forces before the outbreak of Eelam war IV in August 2006, today the single biggest deployment is in the Vanni.

The army chief appreciated the Chinese assistance to speed up the re-deployment process by making available what he called pre-fabricated technology. Lt. General Jayasuriya said: "These types of permanent buildings were made possible due to pre-fabricated technology from China. The government wants us to vacate all buildings, belonging to the civil sector, so that owners of those buildings could reclaim them and help bring normalcy to the area. Civil life should be restored and facilitated in the area. In the future, once married quarters of the officers and the other ranks are set up in respective areas, they would be able to live with their families as well while serving the areas."

The Army Chief thanked his officers and men for the ongoing development projects under ‘Uthuru Wasanthaya’ programme in the sphere of demining, bridge building, constructions, other humanitarian projects, etc.

Military spokesman Brigadier Ubaya Madawela said that permanent bases were being set up both east and west of the A9 road. Responding to a query by The Island, Madawala said that some of the new constructions would come up at Tunukkai. He emphasized that all new bases would be set up on State land, though some accused the government of taking over private land.

According to him, as part of the re-deployment in a post-LTTE era, a section of the 53 Division had been moved to the South to intensify security and also to assist in development programmes. The 53 Division troops are deployed in Galle, Hambantota and Moneragala, while a section of troops remained at Mankulam. Major General Amal Karunasekera, formerly head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) recently took over the 53 Division.

Brigadier Madawala said that the army was making an effort to vacate private property occupied by troops deployed in the Jaffna town area. He said that due to severe ‘space constrains’ they were finding it difficult to move troops, though they were looking for ways and means of finding alternative accommodation for them.

The army consists of 200,000 personnel. It numbers increased exponentially due to massive recruitment drives carried out during Eelam war IV to strengthen fighting formations.