Over 16,000 military personnel have requested to resign from their respective services during the general amnesty period announced for absentees of Sri Lanka’s armed forces.
The Ministry of Defence declared a general amnesty for the absentees of the armed forces from 15 November to 31 December 2022, enabling legal discharge from the respective services.
Speaking to NewsWire, Army Spokesman Brigadier Ravi Herath said that these officers are longstanding absentees, with some even being from the 1980s.
Stating that as per the Military law it is illegal to remain in the Military Service following an absence of 90 days, he said, therefore, measures were taken to legally discharge such officers in a bid to reorganize and discipline the Sri Lanka Army.
He further said as of Thursday (15), 34 officers and 16,141 officers of other ranks are being considered for legal discharge.
“Absentees of the armed forces require to be legally discharged in order for them to be able to obtain other regular state or private jobs. Due to this, some officers are allegedly involved in certain illegal acts. So we are taking measures to prevent such incidents. We are also looking at disciplining the military personnel and hence, removing such officers who are no longer willing to be part of the armed forces,” Brigadier Ravi Herath explained.
He further said, “16,141 officers of other ranks who were absent and have reported to their regimental centres were given the clearance to discharge from the service. Within the span of one month, around 32 officers also reported to their regimental centres after being absent and out of them, 21 were provided clearance to discharge from the service,” he revealed.
The Army Spokesman said that 1 officer and 179 officers of other ranks are currently in the regimental centres undergoing security and medical clearance and will be asked to leave upon the completion of the process.
He further said that special arrangements have been made for absentees who are living overseas and wish to be legally discharged from military service.
“A total of 12 officers and 96 of other ranks have asked for resignation while being absent without leave as they have left the country and are working in private ventures in the countries where they are residing now. We have given the authority for them to get their next of kin or one of their trusted relatives to come and hand over the relevant documents. Once the documents are cleared, they also will be given the authority to resign from the Army,” he added.
He said that the clearance process in this regard is currently underway and legal discharge will be offered following the completion of the necessary processes,
Brigadier Herath also clarified that the resignations given thus far are not from officers who are currently serving in the Army but from absentees. (NewsWire)