He said that after the sinking of three LTTE arms ships by the Navy a few weeks ago, some sections claimed that it was done to distract attention from the cost of living. “That is not true, these brave men destroyed the ships for the sake of the country and not to help any political party or individual. Please don’t mix these up with politics,” he said.

In a direct threat to the people’s democratic right to dissent and criticize, the Defence Ministry yesterday said that anyone who criticized the security forces was a traitor to the nation.

While urging the media to refrain from publishing any reports that would undermine the efforts of the armed forces, the National Security Media Centre’s Director General Lakshman Hulugalle told the media: “We consider anyone who criticizes the defence forces to be a traitor to the nation as such people undermine the lives of armed forces personnel.”

He said that after the sinking of three LTTE arms ships by the Navy a few weeks ago, some sections claimed that it was done to distract attention from the cost of living. “That is not true, these brave men destroyed the ships for the sake of the country and not to help any political party or individual. Please don’t mix these up with politics,” he said.

However, he was quick to note that the Navy was able to destroy the LTTE ships due to the leadership given by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Navy Chief Wasantha Karannagoda.

Navy Spokesman D.K.P. Dassanayake also urged the media not to undermine the Navy personnel, who risked their lives to successfully detect and destroy the LTTE arms shipments.

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