Debate over Army recruitment in Sri Lanka

By V. S. Sambandan

COLOMBO, JAN. 28. As the Sri Lankan security forces announce a fresh recruitment plan to bolster the strength of the Army, a fresh debate has sparked in the country on the issue of conscription.

For long, conscription as a means of sourcing fighters has been a topic best avoided by both military and political leaders in view of its significant political import.

The Army is already constrained by shortage of manpower, as a result of which another attempt has been made to recruit 15,000 more fighters to fight the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The present strength of the security forces is estimated to be around 1.2 lakhs.

A senior Cabinet Minister, Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse, however, said though there is nothing official as yet, he would not be surprised if such a decision was taken. ``We need more people to fight the war. There are countries which have made military service compulsory. It makes people to be more patriotic and conscious about what is going on. It is very important for a country like ours to make it compulsory,'' he was quoted saying by a Sri Lankan newspaper.

Military officials, while remaining tight-lipped on the issue in public, feel that there should be a greater realisation among the citizens about the nature of the conflict. Issues such as the nature of the internal conflict and the already skewed participation rate among the Island's ethnic communities are to be reckoned with.

On the international front, observers feel, there would be a significant difference between the situation in countries where conscription prevails and in present Sri Lankan conditions.

The participation of the Island's minority Tamils is presently extremely low in the Army. A well-publicised recruitment drive announced last year in the Island's north and east aimed at drawing Tamils to the army turned a blank.

In this backdrop, Tamil leaders feel that conscription during the time of a conflict could lead to an adverse opinion - both within and outside the Island. ``The Government will get a bad name if they do it during an ethnic conflict,'' Mr. Suresh Premachandran of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) said, adding that even sections of the majority Sinhalese community would be against it.

Yet another hurdle the Government would have to face, it is pointed out, is that unlike rebel groups, the state would have to follow legal norms for recruitment. In rebel organisations, `conscription' normally means rounding up people from public places. The state cannot do such things. The media has also placed conscription in the public agenda, with the Daily News today expressing a cross-section of opinion.

On the social dimension of conscription, a Buddhist priest, Ven. Sobhitha Thera has been quoted as saying that ``all governments come up with various topics when they are losing and this is just one of them. It is very unlikely that this will be enforced. Even if it is implemented, there will be many exemptions for the mighty and the affluent''.

According to Army sources, most of the fighters on the battle- front are with a rural background, and those from the urban centres are normally officers. With mass-recruitment aimed at increasing the strength of foot-soldiers, the rural-urban divide is also a matter to be reckoned with.

Bomb found, defused

A 10-kg bomb was unearthed in Sri Lanka's eastern Kathankudi town, in Batticaloa district this morning even as people in the Government-held areas observed a general strike in protest against restrictions on their movements.

According to sources from Batticaloa, the bomb was found on a road side in Kathankudi, a Muslim-majority town. It was later defused.

Shops in the Batticaloa district were closed in protest against the Government's moves to issue permits and passes, following reports of resurgence of suicide-bombers in Colombo from Batticaloa.

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