Over the past three years, Sri Lanka’s regime has spent 602 billion rupees or about $US6 billion on the war – equivalent to 14 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008.
Following the declared victory over the LTTE and the end of brutal military campaign, far from there being any reduction in military expenses, Sri Lanka Army commander General Fonseka says that the army would be expanded by 50 percent, leading to increases in defence expenses.
“Our strength is 200,000 and it will become 300,000 soon... We like to see young men joining us more quickly. We don’t mind enlisting even 10,000 a month; we need a lot more soldiers to reach our goal,” Fonseka told, ITN, a local Television station on Monday May 25.
According to Fonseka, this huge army, one of the largest per capita in the world, will be used for a military occupation of the North and East of the island, primarily directed against the Tamil population.
“It will not be easy for them to build up a terror group as they did before,” Fonseka told ITN.
