‘Army is watching security situation carefully’ warns Shavendra Silva – The Island

by Thusiyan
Jan 30, 2019
<p>Sri Lanka’s newly appointed chief of staff, who is accused of playing a leading role in the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians and breaking international law, warned that the military “was watching the country’s security situation carefully,” according to a report in The Island.</p> <p>Speaking to reporters after visiting senior Buddhist monks and praying at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Major General Shavendra Silva, reportedly also added the military was continuing to recruit new troops “in keeping with manpower needs”.</p> <p>The Island added that Silva was blessed by a senior Buddhist monk from the Malwatte chapter “for his outstanding service during the country’s war on terror”, whilst another leading monk from the Asgiriya chapter advised him to “vigilant over the incidents taking place in some parts of the country at present”.</p> <p>See more from The Island&nbsp;<a href="http://island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&amp;page=article-de…">here</a>.</p> <p>There continues to be international outrage at the appointment of Silva to the army’s second highest post, with criticism from several Tamil diaspora groups and human rights organisations.</p> <p>Silva has been dubbed the “most wanted man in Sri Lanka” by the&nbsp;International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) with calls for him to face prosecution for his involvement in the massacres that saw hospitals shelled and surrendering Tamils executed.</p>

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button