{"id":118768,"date":"2014-01-23T12:14:36","date_gmt":"2014-01-23T06:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=118768"},"modified":"2014-01-30T11:13:54","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T05:43:54","slug":"lalith-weertaunge-rebuts-president-on-northern-troop-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/lalith-weertaunge-rebuts-president-on-northern-troop-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Lalith Weertaunge Rebuts President On Northern Troop Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making a presentation to foreign diplomats\u00a0 in Geneva on January 21, presidential secretary Lalith Weeratunge<\/span><\/a> contradicted President Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> on the number of troops deployed in the Northern Province. Weeratunge is in Geneva as part of the campaign to fight against the impending resolution at the Human Rights Council in March 2014.<\/p>\n

\"Weeratunga<\/a>

Weeratunga<\/p><\/div>\n

On Sunday, January 19, President Rajapaksa while opening a hospital constructed with private sector donations claimed that there were only 12,000 Army personnel in the entire Northern Province<\/span><\/a>. Speaking at the opening of the Tellippalai Trail Cancer Hospital president Rajapaksa added that the strength of the Army in the North at the end of the conflict was 70,000.<\/p>\n

Yet making his presentation to Geneva diplomats just two days later Weeratunge says that there are 80,000 Army personnel in the North as of October 2013. Illustrating with a graph the Presidential Secretary claims that that there has been a reduction of 30 percent of Army troops from the peak deployment of roughly 120,000 in December 2009. Interestingly the graph shows that the number of troops in the North in fact increased after the end of the war in May 2009 to peak in December that same year. Weeratunge’s numbers do not consider the Navy and Air force personnel deployed in the Northern Province.<\/p>\n

The Army currently has four Security Forces Head Quarters in the Northern Province, namely Jaffna, Wanni, Kilinochchi and Mullaittiyu. Among these there are 14 Divisions and 3 task forces. By convention a Division would consist of between 10,000 to 30,000 troops. The Army deployment in the Northern Province is as follows;<\/p>\n

Security Forces Headquarters – Jaffna (SFHQ-J)<\/p>\n

51 Division, based in Jaffna<\/p>\n

52 Division, based in the Jaffna Peninsula<\/p>\n

55 Division, based in Elephant Pass Military Base, Jaffna Peninsula[32]<\/p>\n

Security Forces Headquarters – Wanni (SFHQ-W)<\/p>\n

Area Headquarters Mannar, Mannar<\/p>\n

21 Division<\/p>\n

56 Division, operating in the Vavuniya District<\/p>\n

61 Division, operating in the Vavuniya District<\/p>\n

Security Forces Headquarters – Kilinochchi (SFHQ-KLN)<\/p>\n

57 Division, operating in the Kilinochchi District<\/p>\n

66 Division, operating in the Kilinochchi District<\/p>\n

68 Division, operating in the Kilinochchi District<\/p>\n

Task Force 3, operating in the Kilinochchi District<\/p>\n

Task Force 7, operating in the Kilinochchi District<\/p>\n

Security Forces Headquarters – Mullaittivu (SFHQ-MLT)<\/p>\n

59 Division, operating in the Mullaittivu District<\/p>\n

64 Division, operating in the Mullaittivu District<\/p>\n

65 Division, Thunukkai, Mullaittivu District<\/p>\n

Task Force 2, operating in the Mullaittivu District<\/p>\n

Independent Divisions<\/p>\n

53 Division, based at Mankulam<\/p>\n

58 Division, based at Paranthan (formally referred to as the Task Force 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":41387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nLalith Weertaunge Rebuts President On Northern Troop Numbers - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/lalith-weertaunge-rebuts-president-on-northern-troop-numbers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lalith Weertaunge Rebuts President On Northern Troop Numbers - 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