The Hindu : Armed forces not equipped for LTTE attack: Chandrika

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 24, 2003

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Armed forces not equipped for LTTE attack: Chandrika

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO JUNE 23. The Sri Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, has cautioned the nation that the armed forces are least prepared for a military assault by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

At a political convention of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party which she heads, Ms. Kumaratunga, criticised the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe's administration for not replenishing the island's armoury since last February's ceasefire. She said that the island's armed forces had ammunition sufficient for 10 days if the LTTE launched a sudden attack, the Island newspaper reported.

It is not immediately known if the President's observation at the SLFP rally was a statement of military fact or her known resort to political rhetoric to convey a hard message to the masses.

Political and military observers feel the island's military strength is currently not sufficient to take on the LTTE, if the rebels were to launch a sudden attack.

However, no details of the armoury have been made public.

At the rally, the President also reportedly said that "half the fighting craft and fighter planes are unfit for use since the Government had not purchased the required spare parts during the past few month", the paper reported.

The armed forces, she charged, "were asked by the Government to turn a blind eye towards LTTE operations" and that the rebels had smuggled in arms "eight times".

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