Sri Lankan army to delist more than 60,000 deserters

Sri Lankan army to delist more than 60,000 deserters

2011-11-08 08:47:34 GMT+7 (ICT)

COLOMBO (BNO NEWS) -- The Sri Lankan military is to delist more than 60,000 soldiers who deserted their ranks during and after the civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels, the army said on Monday.

Since the decades-long war ended in 2009, the army had offered several amnesty periods for the tens of thousands of deserters to return to their ranks and not face punishment. Army spokesman Nihal Hapuarachchi told The Sunday Leader newspaper that the army will now delist the soldiers who have not reported back to service.

"These are soldiers who had deserted their ranks since 1982. Soldiers who had not reported back to service are considered deserters and they will now be delisted from the army," he said.

Hapuarachchi added that around 5,000 deserters must still report back to their respective military bases to go through some other formalities before being delisted. Meanwhile, the military and the police are hunting for more than 500 soldiers who have reportedly been involved in criminal activities.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam was militarily wiped out in May 2009, ending the 26-year-old civil war. The bloody war between the government and the Tamil Tigers left as many as 100,000 people dead. Both sides have been accused of war crimes and other human rights violations.

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