Army, Air Force Chiefs reject UNP Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe's Statements - Jan 2009

Army Commander Sarath Fonseka and Air Force Commander Roshan Goonetilleke have totally rejected statements made by UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe that quick and complete attention had not been provided to soldiers who were injured in the warfront to save their lives.

The Army Chief in a statement broadcast by the state owned ITN said, "The security forces have enough helicopters to transport injured soldiers immediately from the battlefield to necessary hospitals and after immediate treatment, if necessary there are enough transport planes to transfer them to Colombo for further specialized medical attention." In a sweeping statement he rejected the UNP leaders utterances as "untruth" and "distortions" meant to mislead.

The Army Chief said, most of the soldiers hit in the battlefield are by heavy artillery and mortars possessed by the LTTE that were allowed to be smuggled into the country by politicians during the days of the Ceasefire Agreement and the very leaders who allowed those weapons into the country should be directly responsible for the injuries caused to the soldiers, in an obvious attack on Mr. Wickremesinghe.

Many shiploads of weapons were allowed to be taken into the country during the time of Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe while the country's Navy was asked to show a Nelsonian eye to the activities of the LTTE as a measure to save the Ceasefire Agreement, years ago.