High Security Zones in the north

Now that the goernment has provided an alternative route to Jaffna and in conditions of peacetime with a gradualreturn to normality, the issue of the High Security Zones and a bloated military presence in the Peninsula and northern Vanni should be reviewed. The map below is from my files and is probably dated and overblown. Again when a Tamil lecturer told me last June that twenty percent of the land area in the Peninsula was occupied by armed services personnel, he may have been exaggerating, but the issue remains. My travels indicated that there certainly were numerous cantonments on the northern coast and between Point Pedro and Elephant Pass not to cantonments and manned guardposts those along the A9 between Elephant Pass and Omanthai.  This is an invitation for recent vistiors and government sources to provide more accurate updates. Michael Roberts .