According Sri Lankan state media an alleged Russian style coup attempt by defeated presidential candidate General (retd) Sarath Fonseka has prompted Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to undertake a major purge in the top brass of the military.
Thirty seven persons including several retired Major Generals and Colonels and Brigadiers have been held in detention over their alleged involvement in the coup attempt, the government said on Friday 5 February 2010.
In addition, an undisclosed number have been "sent on compulsory retirement" because they were considered a "direct threat to national security," according to the Defence Ministry.
Sri Lankan Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa at a press briefing said the government had collected evidence that General Fonseka had plans to appoint Bolshevik committees at every state institution to carry out routine work after killing President Rajapaksa, and his brothers Gotabhaya and Basil Rajapaksa.
In addition to the arrests, a series of senior level transfers have also been effected. According to Sunday Times newspaper, most of the officers who had been transferred were close to Fonseka.
As part of the reshuffle, Major General Daya Ratnayake has been appointed as the new Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Army. Ratnayake was earlier Commissioner General (Rehabilitation) under the Ministry of Defence.
Some of the commanders of the Northeast were also reshuffled with the appointments of Major General Athula Jayawardena as Security Forces Commander, Mullaitivu, Brigadier Chandana Rajaguru as Security Force Commander, Kilinochchi, Brigadier Susil Udumalgala as Security Forces Commander (East) and Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe as Security Forces Commander, Jaffna.
A military official speaking to Sri Lankan newspaper, the Sunday Times, said it was the Army’s biggest-ever purge and went beyond a 1962 shakeup following a coup attempt by volunteer officers against late Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike.
"What we just witnessed is the biggest single shakeup in the Army," a top official told Sunday Times.
In addition to the drastic changes to the military hierarchy and purge,
According to Sri Lankan military, some 1,400 soldiers who were absent without leave turned up at military camps on Thursday February 4 to take advantage of an amnesty declared to coincide with
But thousands more were still listed as deserters, a military official said.
"From today (Friday), the army and the police will step up search operations to arrest deserters," the official, who declined to be named, said.
Military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara confirmed that 1,422 troops who were listed as deserters surrendered Thursday but added others were yet to respond.
In a bid to clean up its rolls,
But since then more troops have left the security forces without permission.
Even though fighting has ended, the military still wants to recruit new troops to fill vacancies in the 200,000-strong army and deploy them in areas of the north and east captured from the Tamil Tigers.
