Sri Lanka Defence Secretary says no military settlements and not occupying private lands in the North

Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa today (17) said security forces did not occupy any private land in the North and that orders have been issued for the military to move out of any private land occupied by them
.Rajapaksa told the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) that displaced people have been allowed to return to their original homes in the North.
The government was not in the process of setting up settlements for either the military or civilians, as the private lands will be occupied by the original owners, he said.
However, he said there was an issue in relation to the high security zones (HSZs) in the Jaffna peninsula, especially in Palali and Kankasanthurai.
Rajapaksa observed that the government is compelled to maintain a substantial military presence in the north to curb the possibility of the LTTE re-grouping again. He warned that the overseas LTTE network is still intact to a certain extent.
The government was carrying out a survey and identifying private lands that fall within the HSZs in order to purchase the respective lands from the owners, Rajapaksa said.
The Defence Secretary noted that the top LTTE leaders like Minister Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (Karuna) and Chief Minster Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan Pillayan helped the government to eradicate the terrorism and now KP (Kumaran Pathmanathan) who was arrested in Malaysia and brought to Sri Lanka a year ago is helping the reconciliation process.