Speaking to reporters on Sunday, the Sri Lankan Army's chief, Lt. General Jagath Jayasuriya, gave his take on the army's role in the North-East and rejected any criticism of the army camps as "not anybody else's" problem.
Jayasuriya said,
"It's not correct to say that there is one soldier for every five citizens in the north,"
"Like any other country we have camps and nobody can say a country cannot have camps,"
"Where the army deploys camps is my problem, not anybody else's,"
Defending the army's encroachment on civilian life, he added,
"The Army is already in the barracks. When we are called upon we go,"
"Like any other army we were engaged in post conflict action to help the government machinery to restore everything back to normal, we are glad to say we have done that in three years."
"Reconstruction work we do it beyond civilian capacity. We do it faster and I'm sure people appreciate it,"
"We got involved in all aspects in the post war and that is the role of any army,"
"Armies are there to fight and restore normalcy. We are going to talk about our experiences and learn from other international military representatives at the seminar"
