Sri Lanka to maintain defence budget – Gotabhaya
The Sri Lankan government plans to keep up record defence spending despite its recent victory over Tamil rebels that ended nearly four decades of fighting, Defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse has said. Adding that the military needed to be modernised and payments made on hardware bought on credit.
Sri Lankaraised its defence budget to a record 1.6 billion dollars in 2009, and finally crushed the Tamil Tigers separatists in May after months of intense battles. “I don’t see an immediate need to reduce the defence spending next year,” Rajapakse told AFP on the sidelines of a meeting on Tuesday. “We have cut down on our ammunition purchases. But we need to bring in new technology to upgrade our military capacity.”
After routing the LTTE, the government scrapped a 200-million dollar ammunition order from China. Rajapakse added that nearly 30,000 government forces were killed and 10,000 disabled in the decades of fighting, with 6,000 killed in the last three months of warfare.
Gothabaya is hell bent on continuing to talk about the defense budget.Sri Lanka continues mainting a high cost defence budget when the GOSL has cried the war on terror is OVER.
Further when the country is teetering on an ecomomic collapse the government is happy in buying arms and mainting an army and still further recruiting 30.000 or more cadres on CREDIT.
If giving employment in the armed forces to the singhala youth and keeping them happy is the governments idea it is a rediculous venture when the government should put out programes for the young youth to enhance their abilites in procuring skills and hiring them into jobs that would increase market potentialities and income for the government.
The government is made up of loonies and further encouraging the singhala yourh also to get easy money is corrupting the minds of the singhala youth who will continue to be lazy and lead an unprofitable life.
What future war are you preparing the youth for.?are you expecting HINA to walk in?If they do the GOSL has absolutely no chance.
Why aren’t there more engineers and dock workers amongst the singhala youth? Educate them and get rid of the Chinese.
General Sarath Fonseka wants to increse numbers in the armed forces and so does Gothabaya.
It is interesting to hear of Sarath Fonseka coming forward for the Presidential elections.
Are you guys planning to have us Tamils in the middle and bash us up for your own pleasure.?You always do this don’t you.enough is enough.
Fight it out yourselves.Leave us alone.
It seems talking about the IDP’s,release and settlement of the IDP’s will be at the ‘high end’ of the election fever and campaign of Mahinda Rajapakse and Sarath Fonseka’s upcoming Presidential elections.
Now we hear that the Tamil IDP’s are to be settled between army camps and singhala villages.
Why?Do you intend to have forced labor,to get them to work and till the gardens at cheap labor and then also plunder their goods and rape the Tamil women.
Your rediculous plans and venomous ideas are too transparent.If any singhalese thinks that others are fools
they are truly mistaken.
The fear phsycosis is transparent.Put it to rest.
What the government has to do is to correct the wrongs they have done to the Tamils.
They are more worried how to keep the singhalese happy and for sure we the Tamils know it has been and will be at the COST OF THE HAPPINESS AND LIVES OF THE TAMILS.
Mr.Rajah, dont write as if you love the Sri Lankan economy so much, its your dream jungle hidden leader Prabakaran with your support demolished our economy for so many years. Our proud governtment servants Gotabaya and Sarath Fonseka atleast protected the country for us and we atleast have our own country where we all can live in harmony. We will develop our economy slowly but we will always keep our defence very strong, the results of which you’re seeing now with the arrest of KP whom you’ll supported as a Spider Man. If you truly love the country and the economy then support the efforts of the governtment to rebuild Sri Lanka.