SRI LANKAS OVER MILITARY SPENDING IS LEADING THE COUNTRY TO ECONOMIC CRISIS V RUDRAKUMARAN

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EIN Presswire

Sri Lankan Security Forces

"Even after the war, military expenditure has not been reduced. Military expenditure is US$ 1.7 million more than during the war"

Sri Lanka has raised the salary of the defence personnel by 45%. Allocating 11% of its annual expenditure on defence. Even after the war, it has deployed bulk of its army in Tamil areas”
— V RUDRAKUMARAN
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES, April 8, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Sri Lanka is in the throes of a severe economic crisis and people have taken to the streets against the rulers causing a political crisis. While this economic crisis is attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent fall in tourism, Sri Lankas tax reduction, and the sudden ban on fertilizers in agriculture.

The *Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) would like to point out one important factor that the Sri Lankan Government and the international community have lost sight of the cruel and inhuman war waged by the Government against the Tamil people, the Mullivaaikkal genocide perpetrated at the end of the war, the military expenditure that Sri Lanka is incurring through the continued occupation and subjugation of the Tamil people, and the subjecting of the Tamil people to structural genocide these are the main factor behind the current economic crisis in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankas recent military expenditure on the war against Tamils has been reported to be as follows; The Eelam War III between 1995 and 2002 had a cost of 1.3 million dollars. During Peacetime between 2002 and 2005, about 1 and half million dollars was spent, and soon after, the Eelam War IV from 2006 to 2009, an additional 1.5 million dollars was spent.

Even after ending the war in 2009, Sri Lanka has continued to expand its army through the elite Special Task Force, Police and is today allocating 11% of its annual expenditure on defence. Sri Lanka had allocated 3.3% of its GDP to military expenditure during the war. After the cessation of war, military expenditure has not been considerably reduced. Though the proportion has been shown at 2.1%, the real military expenditure is reported to be 1.7 million dollars more than during the war period.

Sri Lanka has turned into the country in the world that is keeping 99 per cent of its military in active service, with the spending of 170 million dollars on pension payments alone for the retired military personnel. The Government of Sri Lanka has raised the salary of the defence personnel by 45%, even after the war and has deployed the bulk of its army in the Homeland of Tamils.

Following the end of the war, Tamils have been fighting through peaceful means for freeing their nation form occupation, and for securing justice for genocide and political sovereignty, The TGTE Prime Minister, Mr. V. Rudrakumaran, has appealed to the Sinhala people and the international community to question this excessive military expenditure by Sri Lanka. He has also insisted on the immediate withdrawal of the army from Tamil areas.

Sri Lankas Secretary of Defence, General Kamal Gunaratne, while responding to recent reports of the entry of the Indian Army into Sri Lanka, has
asserted that the Sri Lankan Army is capable of facing up to any threat in order to assure national security. The oft-repeated assertion on the part of the Sri Lankan military sources that there was no internal threat and that their military is in a position to face any external threat has to be taken as being directed at India. This is but a manifestation of the Mahavamsa mindset of the Sinhala nation that India was always intent on invading the island of Lanka.

The TGTE urges India, which is rendering humanitarian help to Sri Lanka in a friendly manner in order for the people to overcome the economic crisis, raises the question why Sri Lanka should go on such a spending spree and incur boundless military expenditure. India should apply due pressure for total withdrawal of the army from Tamil areas.

The international community, while considering the economic and political problems of Sri Lanka, should also take into account the Tamil National question. Accountability for justice and a political solution have to be regarded as two main aspects of the Tamil national question.

We look upon with solidarity the Sinhala people who have taken to the streets to highlight their struggles over the economic crisis and livelihood problems.
However, we would like to point out that a change of regime would never be a permanent solution to this problem, which would only be realized when the national question of the Tamils is resolved.

We would like to remind everyone that a government wielding power within the deeply entrenched Sinhala-Buddhist supremacist state structure of Sri Lanka does not permit any space for justice nor for political sovereignty of the Tamil people this is the sad reality in Sri Lanka.


* ABOUT THE TRANSNATIONAL GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL EELAM (TGTE):

The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a democratically elected Government of over a million strong Tamils (from the island of Sri Lanka) living in several countries around the world.

TGTE was formed after the mass killing of Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government in 2009.

TGTE thrice held internationally supervised elections among Tamils around the world to elect 135 Members of Parliament. It has two chambers of Parliament: The House of Representatives and the Senate and also a Cabinet.

TGTE is leading a campaign to realize the political aspirations of Tamils through peaceful, democratic, and diplomatic means and its Constitution mandates that it should realize its political objectives only through peaceful means. Its based on the principles of nationhood, homeland and self-determination.

TGTE seeks that the international community hold the perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide against the Tamil people to account. TGTE calls for a referendum to decide the political future of Tamils.

The Prime Minister of TGTE is Mr. Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran, a New York based lawyer.

Email: [email protected]
Web: www.tgte-us.org
Twitter: @TGTE_PMO


BACKGROUND

Tamils in the island of Sri Lanka faced repeated mass killings in 1958, 1977, and 1983 and the mass killings in 2009 prompted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to appoint a Panel of Experts to report on the scale of the killings.

According to UN internal review report on Sri Lanka, over 70 thousand Tamils were killed in six months in early 2009 and Tamil women were sexually assaulted and raped by the Sri Lankan Security forces.

International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) in February 2017 handed over details to UN of Sri Lankan Military run "Rape Camps", where Tamil women are being held as sex slaves. Also, according to UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office report on April 2013, there are over 90 thousand Tamil war widows in Sri Lanka.

Thousands of Tamils disappeared, including babies and children. UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances stated in 2020 that the second highest number of enforced disappearance cases in the world is from Sri Lanka.

According to this UN report, the killings and other abuses that took place amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Independent experts believe that there are elements of these abuses that constitute an act of genocide.

Members of the Sri Lankan security forces are almost exclusively from the Sinhalese community and the victims are all from the Tamil community.

Tamils overwhelmingly voted in a Parliamentary election in 1977 to establish an independent and sovereign country called Tamil Eelam. This Parliamentary election was conducted by the Sri Lankan Government.

Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE)
+1 614-202-3377
[email protected]
Visit us on social media:
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