In a brief Press Conference (May 9) at the Ministry of Defence, General Kamal Gunaratne (Retd) urged all peace-loving Sri Lankans to refrain from violence and provocations after unfortunate incident earlier on the day. We know economic hardships, being experienced by all civilians. “All of us are Sri Lankans and they are our sisters, brothers, sons and daughters and such provocations, arson attacks and destruction of public and private property would bring no solution to these problems. Please help the Police and Security Forces to maintain law and order. We are committed to protect the lives of both young and old and I appeal all of you to remain calm and help us at this decisive moment of our country,” he urged.
Meanwhile, General Shavendra Silva, Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army making an earnest appeal to the public, involved in provocative violent acts told the Media Conference that the armed forces are fully committed to protect the civilians of the country as we have been doing since these protests started several weeks ago. “We have to facilitate the essential services in the country and we very kindly urge all of you to help the armed forces to maintain those services and provide that space to the armed forces. We urge you to shun violence and help maintain peace without behaving in an unruly manner. Armed Forces are not at all there to do anything else regarding your protests, but what we want is to assist maintain law and order. We are there to protect our country, our civilians and public property. As a result, we deployed out troops in Colombo area at the request of the Police in order to assist them to maintain peace. At this moment we urge our intelligent and peace-loving citizens in the country to act wisely and refrain from damaging public property and harming personnel as we have to forge ahead as a country,” he said.
“I very humbly and personally urge you to help the armed forces and refrain from violence since only arson, murder or brawls would not in any way solve burning issues. As the Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army, I assure you the best of security to all the people and the public property in the country,” General Shavendra Silva appealed.
SL Army
