Sri Lanka Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said that presence of military in the areas earlier under the control of the LTTE would be necessary to ensure that terrorist groups like the Tigers do not come up once again in the island nation. Deposing before the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) the Defence Secretary who is the younger brother of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa also disclosed that barring the hardcore all the LTTE cadres in military and police custody would be released in the next one year.The Commission, constituted by President Rajapaksa to look into incidents from the time of ceasefire between the Government and the LTTE in 2002 till the end of war in May 2009, has been holding its public sittings to elicit views from a cross section of the people. The last week end the Commission members traveled to Vavuniya in the north and heard from several people including some of the surrendered LTTE cadres.In response to a pointed question from a member of the Commission Mr. Gotabhaya said that of the 11,000 odd LTTE cadres who had surrendered the military has already trained and rehabilitated 30 per cent of them. ‘About 1,000 of these cadres are hard-core and they would be prosecuted as per the laws of the land’.Answering another question on the charge that the military has taken over large chunk of private land in the Northern Province, the Defence Secretary asserted that the Government was constructing security establishments including shelter for the defence personnel only in the ‘government land’.He conceded that the issue of high security zones encroaching on private land remained in the Jaffna peninsula especially in Palali which houses the Air Force base and KKS which consists of the harbour area. ‘The Government has plans to acquire private land in these areas and provide alternative land to the displaced. The areas in Vanni like the bunker used by the LTTE leader Prabhakaran and the other buildings of the Tigers are taken over by the military’, the Defence Secretary said. On the plans of the Government to transfer power from the military to the civilian administration, Mr. Gotabhaya said that 500 Tamil police officers are being trained for deployment in the Northern Province.The Defence Secretary made it a point to mention that death of 6,000 cadres of the Sri Lankan forces with another 30,000 injured in the Eelam war IV from 2006 to 2009 showed the intensity of the fighting. ‘The number of those killed and injured on the LTTE side is much more. However while every one talks about civilian casualties, no one talks about the LTTE casualties’. According to him at the beginning of the war the LTTE had over 30,000 regular cadres including child soldiers.AIR correspondent reports, testifying before Commission today, the Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa minced no words in categorically condemning the LTTE and stated that over the years they acquired almost equivalent weapons to the Sri Lankan Army from all over the world .Despite the LTTE now being completely defeated , he said, military presence in the LTTE controlled areas would continue to ensure that terrorist groups do not re group.Gotabhaya Rajapaksa also disclosed that barring the hardcore all the LTTE cadres in military and police custody would be released in the next one year. About 1,000 of the hard core cadres would be prosecuted as per the laws of the land, he maintained.The Defence Secretary although was not subjected to any intense grueling by the eight member Commission, he denied the charge that the military has taken over large chunk of private land in the Northern Province.However, he did concede that the issue of high security zones encroaching on private land remained in the Jaffna peninsula especially in Palali which houses the Air Force base and KKS which consists of the harbour area.On the plans of the Government to transfer power from the military to the civilian administration, Mr. Gotabhaya said that 500 Tamil police officers are being trained for deployment in the Northern Province. The issue of alleged human rights violations barely figured in the course of the nearly three hour long session.