"I won't Allow Anyone to Degrade Armed Forces in Any Way" Commander-in-Chief at SLLI Monument Opening

“I will not let the quality and standards of the Armed Forces deteriorate in any way, nor would I allow any forces to degrade the image of the hard-earned dignity of the Sri Lankan armed forces, instead all possible support would be extended to enhance quality, professionalism and skills among our servicemen,” so remarked President Maithripala Sirisena during a brief address to the opening ceremony of the new state-of-the art  War Hero Monument of the Army’s oldest regiment, Sri Lanka Light Infantry at Panagoda on Monday (26) morning.

With that in mind, the highest allocation in the 2016 Budget has also been set apart for defence since enhancement of professionalism and technical know-how among our servicemen as well as the improvement of their infrastructural needs to suit any other army in the world, has been prioritized. “Maintenance, renovations and re-designing, enhancement of professional quality and capacity of the forces need to be properly evaluated and I will without fail fulfill those needs for betterment of our soldiers. The world has recognized your services, and the UN positively responded to my request for allocation of more and more openings for our servicemen to serve in peace-keeping contingents. They would certainly assist us.  Despite various criticisms, in front of  this Monument, I assure you that our armed forces would not in any way be weakened, nor it be subjected to any degradation under me,” emphasized President Sirisena.

Referring to the UN issue on alleged violation of human rights, said to have taken place during the latter part of the humanitarian operations, the President highlighted the honest need for us to resolve this issue once for all in an amicable way safeguarding our dignity since the conflict had dragged for many decades, although all state leaders and service commanders, using their maximum efforts were keen on resolving it.

In his address, President Sirisena recalled how our forces were brought to ridicule by some fractions with vested interests while spreading the myth that our forces, could not ever be able to win over LTTE terrorism, and therefore a separation was needed, instead.

Smashing all those myths, it was none other than our selfless armed forces who stood by firmly and dedicatedly behind the nation and fought valiantly to achieve durable peace, bringing defeat finally to the LTTE terror. “ I myself having been exposed and managed to escape from five such LTTE terrorist atrocities know very well the ferocity and complex nature of terrorism and its fallout. No more room should be left for it to rise its head again”, the President stressed.