Priests and social activists have criticized what they have called the continued militarization of the country, saying the government has continued to deploy soldiers in the name of development

The criticism came during a seminar organized by the Christian Solidarity Movement on September 26.

“The north and the east continue to be under strict military control. We … should not allow the military to dictate the rules [of society]. Instead of the civil administration, the army is governing the north and east provinces,” said JC Waliamuna, a senior human rights and constitutional lawyer, who attended the seminar.

“The army has to be consulted if anyone in those areas wants to gather for a meeting. Under democratic governance, people have the power to challenge government institutions such as the Human Rights Commission on excesses by the army and police, but practically the people in those areas cannot exercise that liberty.”

He added that in the post-war era, the army should be reduced to a manageable size and soldiers should be integrated into the civil sector.

Waliamuna said the state has sent mixed signals over issues of security in the country.

“The government tells the world that the situation is normal in the country, while the president [Mahinda Rajapaksa] tells the country there are security threats all over the country that the police cannot handle.”

Rajapaksa on September 8 issued a Public Security Ordinance that allowed deployment of military forces island-wide to maintain law and order.

However he told a meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York last week that armed forces had been deployed for development purposes.

Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa echoed the president’s statement in an interview yesterday with local media.

“We are using the forces in several humanitarian activities such as improving drainage. Navy officials have made a sacrifice in the past to defeat terrorists. At present they are doing social work, and if they involve these types of activities it does not mean that they have violated the human rights of others.”

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