Sri Lanka cancels weapons purchase

Sri Lanka has cancelled a $200 million purchase of ammunition from Pakistan and China after the end of its war with the Tamil Tigers, the island nation's new top military commander said on Wednesday, July 15.

"We stopped the orders of $200 million worth of ammunition from China and Pakistan with the war's end," Fonseka said after assuming his new post.

The main component of the orders was for replenishment of large quantities of expendables like artillery shells, mortars, bombs and assorted varieties of ammunition. The order would have been enough ammunition to fire guns and heavy weapons at the rate seen during the climax of the war, which ended in mid May, according to Fonseka.

Fonseka said the Chinese order was cancelled because there was no need to stock ammunition for heavy guns after the victory over the LTTE.

Defence spending in 2009 was estimated at Sri Lanka Rs. 200 billion ($1.74 billion), accounting for 17 per cent of the country’s total expenditure.

The Sunday Times, a Colombo based newspaper commenting on the cancellation said t is clear that the Government did not expect the military defeat of the LTTE so early, certainly not just two months ago.

“Both defence and security officials had earlier set time frames of two and three years to defeat the LTTE. More proof came this week when the Government decided to cancel orders worth US$ 200 million for defence supplies both from China and Pakistan, which have been two of the largest suppliers.”

Sri Lanka's military and police, with a combined strength of 350,000, won one of the Asia's longest modern wars and declared victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in mid May.