Lanka reduces forces from Tamil-dominated Jaffna
"The number of troops in the Jaffna Peninsula, at present has been reduced to around 15,000, a reduction of over 60 per cent troops deployed at the beginning of the humanitarian operation," military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasuriya has said.
He said at the peak of the military campaign launched against the Tamil tigers in 2006, there were 50,000 troops deployed in the area, whose strength had been brought down to 15,000.
The
army
spokesman
said
that
troops
had
been
thinned
down
after
making
a
"threat
assessment,
ground
situation
and
capabilities
in
meeting
these
threats."
Western
nations
had
recently
demanded
that
Colombo
thin
out
forces
from
the
former
war
zones
in
view
of
improvement
in
the
situation
there.
The troop withdrawal comes even as Sri Lanka government recently protested over comments by British High Commissioner John Rankin, who had suggested that the government should thin out forces from the Tamil areas. The envoy had also suggested that the military presence in the north and east also be reduced to the levels in the south.
The High Commissioner was summoned to the foreign office to lodge a formal protest over his remarks.
PTI