No need to bring in foreign armies: Mangala

Sri Lanka has no requirement to bring in the US Army or armies of other countries in the aftermath of terror attacks, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said yesterday.

Responding to allegations made by the Opposition MPs, the minister said only the intelligence expertise of foreign countries had been sought to contain the terror situation in the country.

“We have no need to bring in the armies of the US or any other country. However, when taking measures against an international terror outfit, US intelligence agencies have vast experiences and so do intelligence agencies of England, Europe and Australia.

They offered their expertise and helped us in fighting and containing international terrorism in Sri Lanka. What they offered helped us to eradicate this menace,” the minister said in Colombo.

He said the Army Commander and the heads of other security forces had made it clear that the security has been restored.

“If we love the country, we should allow students to go to schools and get back to our day to day life to restore normalcy. Not only Sri Lanka, even developed countries such as the US, the UK, New Zealand, France and Germany have faced international terror threats,” he said.

He admitted that the government had its shortcomings at first but said now it had rectified all those.

“We have provided security to the entire country but unfortunately, there are some who are trying to score political gains and trying to make another Black July. What we are facing today is not international terrorism, which we have contained, but the threats from a political group which wants to make another Black July,” he said. (Lahiru Pothmulla)

Video by Damith