Sri Lanka Army to swell by 50,000

DESPITE the end of the long drawn conflict, Sri Lanka will recruit 50,000 personnel to increase security in areas captured when Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were defeated last month, the military has said.

“We are planning to recruit at least 50,000 for army, navy, air force and police,” Keheliya Rambukwella, defence spokesman and a government minister, said in the first security media briefing since the end of the war.

Foreign diplomats have questioned the need for an increased post-war military, already boosted since 2005 to the size needed to finish off the LTTE’s de facto standing army of fighters, replete with artillery, boats and planes.

Stating that the LTTE held more than 1600 square kilometers of territory as well as two-thirds of the coast in the north before end of the war, Rambukwella said: “Now these areas have to be maintained and administered by troops,” Rambukwella said.

 “We need the security forces and police to be in action to safeguard our country.”

Sri Lanka’s military and police, with a combined strength of 350,000, won one of the Asia’s longest modern wars and declared total victory over the LTTE.