Occupying SL military instructed to prepare Secret Quarantine Centers in North-East

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 April 2020, 22:16 GMT]
SL Army Commander Lt Gen Shavendra Silva has instructed his commanders in the North and East to transform the secret detention camps, which the occupying SL military used in the past to torture and kill former LTTE members as undeclared Quarantine Centers (QC). The undisclosed QCs would be used for “isolation purposes” if the COVID-19 pandemic was to take large proportions in the North-East, informed ex-paramilitary sources in the North said. Already, there are military-operated, publicly-declared QCs in the North-East and the South. The openly declared QCs used to house “Sri Lankans” and foreigners, are maintained as state-of-the-art facilities by the SL military. In contrast, the proposed secret QCs are intended to be used “to keep the situation under control in a worst-case scenario”, an informed source said.

SL Army Commander was visiting the commanders in the field instructing them in person to prepare the secret QCs, the informed EPDP sources said on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

The SL military has already transformed openly identified places such as the former LTTE airstrip in Ira’nai-madu and the detention centres, where former LTTE members were subjected to so-called “military rehabilitation” in the past.

“Keeping the situation under control” is crucial for the occupying military, which has a high-density deployment in the North.

Sinhala soldiers are stationed in the North across the five districts at a ratio of one soldier per eleven civilians. This ratio is much denser in Mullaith-theevu district with one soldier per four civilians.

Chronology: