Learn from Kosgama blast, de-militarise civilian areas in North: Premachandran

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 June 2016, 22:33 GMT]
Colombo must remove the military camps in the North, especially the camps situated in residential areas away from Tamil civilians. The representatives in South have called for relocation camps away from civilian areas after the blast in Kosgama, where people lost lives, sustained injuries and the blast completely destroyed all the surrounding civilian properties. Imagine the situation in North, where several hundreds of army camps have been installed in residential areas among the civilians, said Suresh Premachandran, the leader of EPRLF, which is one of the four parties comprising the Tamil National Alliance.



Now, there is a clear message coming from Kosgama that there should be no military base among the civilian population in South.

Seven years have elapsed since the end of war. There is no need to maintain these camps among the civilians in North. The Colombo government should remove them or relocate them away from civilian areas, the former parliamentarian said.

“If you see the Northern Province, there are several hundreds of army camps in civilian areas. These camps are not in isolated areas. All the army camps are among the civilian population. There are several army camps in Jaffna, Ki'linochchi, Mullaith-theevu, Vavuniyaa and Manaaar districts in the Northern Province. You name it. Huge army camps, small army camps, Brigade offices, divisional head quarters and Battalian headquarters. All of these are situated in civilian areas,” Mr Premachandran said.

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