Restructuring of Sri Lanka's internal defence; new security forces headquarters in south

(September 25, Colombo - Lanka Polity) As another step of restructuring and strengthening the internal defence of Sri Lanka, the state has taken steps to set up new headquarters of security forces that are in the process of southern areas of the island.

The new headquarters set up in Panagoda military complex will coordinate the security of the areas other than the Northern and Eastern Provinces. These areas are dominated by ethnic Sinhala majority of the country and they are relatively free of revolts.

"This new security forces headquarters commands 11 Division in Panagoda, 112 Brigade in Polhengoda, four Area Headquarters in Kandy, Hambantota, Galle and Diyatalawa, two Sub Area Headquarters in Ratnapura and Kurunegala and Operation Command Colombo (OCC) covering the largest area of the country with approximately 77% of the country’s total population," says Army.

Sri Lanka Defense Ministry has already set up security forces headquarters in Jaffna, Vanni and East. Following defeating the Tamil Tigers two new headquarters of the security forces have been set up in Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu, former nerve centers of the rebels. Five of the six security forces headquarters are situated in Tamil dominated areas.  Tamils account to 12.7 percent of the country's population.

Sri Lanka to heighten internet censorship

Labels: අන්තර්ජාල වාරණය

(July 17, 2009) The websites the Sri Lanka government accuses of 'slinging mud' at it will face a situation that they 'will be automatically shut down.'

Media spokesman on National Security Minister Keheliya Rambukwella made the warning as reported by the defense reporter of the state-owned Dinamina Sinhala daily. 

A team of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) led by Deputy Inspector General Nandana Munasinghe has started identifying such websites using multiple technologies since yesterday according to the newspaper report.  

Lanka News Web, a website accused by the government politicians and the pro-government media of 'slinging mud at the government' cannot be accessed from Sri Lanka since July 11. However, the Minister of Information and Media Anura Priyadarshana Yapa denies any involvement of the government in such filtering. Pro-LTTE Tamilnet website is also blocked since years and the government does not admit the responsiblity of that act too.  

Sri Lanka Telecom, a company with 51% state stake is the major internet service provider in Sri Lanka. 

(In the map above, the countries in black are the most heavily censored nations regarding internet access. The countries in green maintain a surveillance; the countries in yellow have some sensorship while the blue countries have no censorship.)