The Sri Lankan army has decided to scale down its presence in the north and east of the country, two areas which were once the battle zone in the war between the military and Tamil Tiger rebels.
Army commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya said that the army is now completely ready for far-reaching reforms in its structural composition vis-à-vis ground realities, security and assisting in development projects.
The government had come under criticism by some groups, mostly minority Tamil political parties, over the heavy military presence in the north and east despite the end of the war three years ago.
‘While scaling down the number of different regimental and area headquarters and presence of troops in the North and East, plans are afoot to assemble more and more battalions together to form only most required headquarters,” the army chief said.
