Gota made 41,000 desert Army

THURSDAY, 26 MARCH 2015

There are about 41,330 Army deserters and they would be given two weeks amnesty period to resign from the Army stated Army spokesman yesterday (25th).

The amnesty period would be till 10th April and after this date raids would be conducted to arrest the deserters added the Army spokesman.

After the end of the war a large number of Army personnel were deployed in former government’s projects and many had towork as labourers in construction works that insulted the dignity they had earned as fighters for the Nation causing many to desert the Army.

Former Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa made Army personnel in uniform sell vegetables, clean drains, pave roads, work as sanitary workers and labourers in ‘palaces’ built for his brother, the former President. They were also deployed for various projects of the Urban Development Authority headed by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and were paid only the Army salary they were entitled to. Such arbitrary moves of the former Defense Secretary depressed soldiers and made them desert the Army.