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| Sri Lanka |
| Sri Lanka to arrest thousands of army deserters |
| 2008-06-23 |
| Sri Lanka’s military has launched a campaign to track down and arrest up to 12,000 army deserters who failed to take advantage of a government amnesty, a spokesman said Sunday. “About 5,000 responded to the general amnesty we had from May 2 to the 30th,” Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. “We are now trying to get at 11,000 to 12,000 deserters who did not respond to the amnesty.” He said most of the desertions had taken place several years ago, and asserted that there had been no exodus in recent years despite heavy fighting with separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas. In 2003, the government moved to legally discharge from the security forces some 51,000 deserters if they agreed to pay any money they owed the military, while those wanting to rejoin were considered for fresh enlistment. However, military officials said despite that offer, thousands were still listed as deserters in the ranks of Sri Lankan security personnel numbering about 200,000. Violence: Two Sri Lankan policemen were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in the island’s east on Sunday, a day after 13 combatants died in clashes across the volatile north, the military said. It was the latest violence in Sri Lanka’s intensifying civil war that has seen fierce battles between troops and Tamil rebels, plus stepped-up bombings blamed on the insurgents. The roadside bomb exploded Sunday morning in Kaludawalai village in the eastern Batticaloa district, according to a military statement. On Saturday, 11 rebels and two soldiers died in several battles across the island’s restive north, in Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar and Welioya districts, the military statement said. |
| Posted by:Fred |