“The defunct terrorist organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will remain as a listed terrorist organization”, said Malaysia’s Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
The Japanese Navy ship “Takanami” which arrived in Sri Lanka on 21st February 2020, departed the island, today (23rd February 2020).
The Defence Ministry has established a Task Force (TF) to monitor the progress to speed up the on-going investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into last year’s Easter Sunday serial terrorist attacks in the country, which had claimed more than 250 lives.
The Defence Ministry vehemently denies the accusations by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), which claimed that families of enforced disappearance and activists supporting them are under the microscope of the Sri Lankan Security Forces and intelligence agencies.
Defence Secretary Maj. Gen. (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne emphasised the need of a disciplined and professional Police force to maintain peace, law and order in the country.
* Private security firms registration applications also available
During the recently announced grace period, 200 firearms without valid permits or with no renewed permits have been handed over to Police stations in nine provinces.
• Technical discrepancies over pension payments for disabled war veterans, families and widows to be resolved
Defence Ministry will submit a new Cabinet paper to solve existing issues related to pensions and allowances to disabled persons of armed forces and the police, soon.
With the conclusion of the week- long firearms amnesty, the Police together with other intelligence agencies have commenced raiding illegal firearms.
Turkey looks forward in sharing Sri Lanka’s experiences in combating terrorism and enhancing intelligence sharing in a combined effort to combat violent fundamental extremism.
Afghanistan Ambassador to Sri Lanka M. Asharf Haidari pledged that Afghanistan would provide its assistance to Sri Lanka in countering drug trafficking in the South Asian region.
On 28 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) a global emergency. The new virus emerged in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province in China but has now spread to at least 27 other countries, including Sri Lanka.
The Government has conveyed Sri Lanka’s strong objections on the imposition of travel restrictions on Sri Lanka’s Acting Chief of Defence Staff and Army Commander Lt. Gen.Shavendra Silva and immediate family, today.
Part of Sri Lanka’s problem has been not to challenge some of the lies being propagated by the power of funding sources both legitimate and illegitimate.
A Sri Lankan story on Corona virus :
While strongly objecting to the imposition of travel restrictions on Army Commander Lt. Gen. Silva and his immediate family by the US, the Government has requested the US to verify the authenticity of the sources of information and to review its decision.
We need a closure. We know how many Sri Lanka Armed Forces personnel died or were injured during the final phase of the conflict but the problem lies in determining the dead LTTE and dead Tamil ‘civilians’.
Defence Secretary Maj.Gen. (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne assured not to leave space for terrorism to destabilise country’s peace in future under the leadership of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The Government has informed the UN that ‘timelines evolved externally in achieving stated objectives would only seek to hinder the process of reconciliation since they would be bereft of ground realities’.
Construction work of ‘Sandahiru Seya’ is to be expedited with added labour in keeping with professional standards on instructions of Defence Secretary Maj.Gen. (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne.
Says providing services for war hero and disables soldiers will be extended to districts.
Israel is willing to assist Sri Lanka to digitalise its state sector while strengthening military ties, sharing intelligence and offer more training opportunities for Sri Lanka Police and Tri Forces personnel.
The Sinhala- English Dictionary compiled by Buddhadasa Hewage was presented to Defence Secretary Maj.Gen. (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne during a function held at the Ministry today (12).
Defence Secretary Maj. Gen. (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne arrived in India on an invitation by that country to attend the 11th ‘DEFEXPO-2020’, in Lucknow.
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has facilitated the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) to purchase over 3,268,600 kilos of paddy worth of over Rs. 163,430,000 during last two weeks.
Pakistan Air Force Chief Air Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan said Sri Lanka had an important role to play in maintaining peace and stability in the region and pledged to support strengthening intelligence sharing.