December 10, 2012 | Colombo Gazette
The army today insisted that Tamil girls in the north
are not being forced to join the army and that those recruited have access to
their families.
Army spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said that
that reports to the effect that the Northern Commander had gone from house to
house and forcibly recruited girls was false.
“As outlined earlier the recruitment process was a
pure voluntary recruitment which was open to all female citizens living in the
north who are of that age group with required qualifications,” the army
spokesman said.
He also said that yesterday (Sunday) 132 adults and 32
children visited the Killinochchi 6 Women’s Corps camp to meet recently
recruited Tamil girls who are undergoing training.
He said that during training anywhere in the Military
the trainees are allowed to have visitors only at a specified time, once a
week, without disturbing the training program.
The LLRC in its report had made observations that only
few Tamils are serving in the Army and hence the Tamils perceive the Army as a
Sinhalese Army.
The spokesman said that the army was among the first
State agencies which had taken cognizance of the LLRC Report and in order to
implement the LLRC recommendations it was decided to recruit Tamils, both male
and female, from the North to the Army.
“We have plans to recruit males as well and very
shortly they will be recruited. We thought of giving priority to women because
the very existence of Tamil female soldiers in the Army would be an ante-dote
to false propaganda against the Army. Precisely for this reason, the LTTE rump
domiciled abroad and other interested parties are making a hue and cry on this
issue. They seem to worry that the success of this process would mark the end
of their campaign for false propaganda,” he said.
