Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa will meet the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navaneetham Pillai to brief her on the security situation in the country and on accountability when she arrives in the island, said Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Jagath Jayasuriya.
 
“Her visit, the CHOGM, the elections in North and UN HR session will directly impact on national security. Therefore we have to maintain law and order,” he said yesterday at a media briefing on the present security situation in the country and the responsibilities of the armed forces.

He said that the image of the country was very important and warned that there would be attempts to tarnish it before November

“We have information that the Tamil Diaspora is attempting to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka before the CHOGM. They are sending letters to leaders who are to attend the meeting asking them not to attend,” he said.

“There will be attempts to disrupt national security during the next few months targeting the CHOGM,” he added.

“Therefore we are planning to control our military appropriately as there will be incidents of sabotage by identifying social and economic problems in the country,” he said.

When asked about the Weliweriya incident, he said, “We asked the Inspector General of Police (IGP) why the military was called in for a developing situation as the military is normally called in for a desperate situation”.

“When the police are not able to handle a situation they just call in the armed forces. We have to stop this. Because they should come as the last option,” he said.

The military was called in to assist the police under the third clause of the 95th section of the Criminal Procedure Code, as the police were not able to deal with the situation. Whereas section 101of the code says that the government agent or a magistrate has to be present if such an assembly to be dispersed by military force.

“In Grandpass the police handled the situation well. We will take steps to keep the military from getting involved in such situations. But we are waiting for the report so that we would be able to see what happened there,” he said. (Supun Dias)