Military to take legal action against 18,847 deserters

By Shanika Sriyananda

The armed forces are to take legal action against 18,847 deserters who did not reported for duty during the one-month general amnesty period given to them to report to their posts in the Army, Navy and Air Force.  

The Defence Ministry declared a general amnesty from 13 June to 13 July to grant legal clearance to those who had reported back to the military.

“Responding to the general amnesty, 16,920 army deserters, who had reported back to the army, were discharged from the Sri Lanka Army. The total number of deserters who had reported to the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) is 831 and to the Sri Lanka Air Force is 629. We have been given legal clearance to discharge them from their organisations,” said Military Spokesman Brigadier Jayanath Jayaweera.

According to the Military Spokesman, out of 7,000 deserters from the SLN, 6,169 have not reported back during the general amnesty period.

“Most of those who had reported during this period obtained their discharge documents from the tri-forces. But some are yet to get clearance as we have to clear their loans and bonds signed with the military when going overseas for courses and training,” he told the Daily FT.

SLAF Spokesman Group Captain Chandima Alwis said that 4,717 airmen had deserted the SLAF from 2009 to 2014 and another 510 reported absent in 2015. “Out of this total number of SLAF deserters, 629 have reported back during the amnesty period. We have already given legal clearance to half of them and the others will be discharged once we complete clearing the loans and bonds they have signed,” he said.

However, Brig. Jayaweera said the Police and Military Police in the tri-forces had already started searching for those who had not reported back.

“They will be arrested and go through the normal legal process of the military. Even if they report back to the military now, they have to go through the same legal process to get clearance as they didn’t respond during the general amnesty period,” he explained.

The Military Spokesman said the Defence Ministry would not declare another amnesty period for them to report as they were given a month to report back to clear themselves.