Amidst intense fighting and spiraling casualties Sri Lankan government in its latest attempts to beef up its security forces numbers announced another amnesty to deserters and warned that this would the last amnesty offered.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the powerful Defence Secretary and brother of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa appealed to over 10,000 soldiers who had left the military for various reasons during the past four to five years to return to fight "for their motherland", the Sunday Island Newspaper reported.
"This is a very decisive juncture when the security forces have got the upper hand and need all the help they can get," Rajapaksa, was quoted as saying.
"I request the soldiers who left the military to return without delay to assist the ongoing operations in the North," he said.
"We have spent a lot of money and time on training these soldiers professionally and they had subsequently left for personal reasons. We can expedite the process for them to return and all that they need to do is to come back," he added.
"The Tigers are in disarray - they are falling apart like a pack of cards and fleeing for safety leaving behind heavy guns and artillery as never seen before," Rajapaksa told the newspaper.
President Mahinda Rajapakse also made a similar public appeal for deserters to return to their ranks.
“We are in the last lap of a decisive war. Therefore, I am appealing to the security forces personnel who have not returned after their vacation to report immediately to strengthen the hands of the troops who are already in the battle field,” President Rajapaksa told a public meeting in Anurahdapura on July 26.
The Sri Lankan military has one of the highest desertion rates in the world and similar appeals in the past have not delivered expected results. According to military sources an estimated seventeen thousand have deserted soldiers are at large.
In their latest drive to persuade the deserters to return to ranks, the military also warned some 12,000 deserters that they will be arrested and court-martialled if they do not return.
Military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said the move was aimed at preventing more desertions and getting deserters back to the battle front. He said the government hoped the decision not to offer amnesty in future would reduce desertions and help bring the deserters back to service.
The military is looking at getting back some 12,000 soldiers who have deserted their ranks in the past two years, the brigadier said.
“All these years, we offered amnesty for deserters, because we thought it was better to have trained soldiers than training new recruits. Training is a costly exercise and it takes 16 weeks to train a new recruit,” Brig Nanayakkara said.
He said
