Two months ago, Lieutenant General Crishanthe De Silva, the SLA Commander appointed by Maithiripala Sirisena, went on record stating that neither troops nor camps would be withdrawn from North.
“No military camps have been withdrawn to release land to the original owners. Neither troops nor camps will be withdrawn from the North. Private lands adjacent to various Army camps have been released from time to time, after the war ended in May 2009,” Crishanthe had told Sunday Observer on 29 March 2015.
However, the PR exercise gave opposite results when Rajapaksa-friendly sections of the Sinhala journalists began producing stories claiming that the SL military had closed down 59 camps in Jaffna this year alone. Sinhala opposition politicians, including the former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa, started to question the new regime.
On 17 June, the SLA Headquarters in Colombo categorically denied closure of SLA camps after January.
The SL Military has issued statements saying 59 outposts were closed down between May 2009 to December 2014. None of these outposts were closed down after January 2015, the figures given by the SL military stated.
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