Recent news reports indicate that prominent personalities in the North have made several misleading statements regarding the recruitment of women into the Army, particularly in the north. Sri Lankan Armed Forces are open for any citizen of the country fulfilling criteria such as educational qualifications, physical attributes, etc. The LTTE prevented citizens from the north and east from joining the Armed Forces prior to 2009. But a few defied LTTE orders and joined the Armed Forces and some have even made supreme sacrifice in the name of Motherland. Many others serve including in senior ranks such as Major General, Brigadier, etc.
Any citizen with qualifications are welcome join armed forces and they can apply when advertisements are published.
As there are vacancies in the Women’s Corps battalions in the north and east a public awareness campaign has been launched in those areas encouraging the females with required qualifications to join. The special emphasis for females in the area is because it will be convenient for them considering close proximity of work places where as for females from other areas it will be challenging to serve away from their families.
The speculative questions raised whether the Armed Forces are reluctant to recruit males from the north and east are baseless. Males with required qualifications from the north and east can apply to join Armed Forces whenever such advertisements are published. However, the need to specifically target a particular area does not arise because culturally males are willing to serve in any part of the island even away from their native places.
We welcome northern males to apply to join armed forces whenever vacancies are announced.
Finally it is reiterated that we reject politically motivated baseless allegations leveled by some parties with vested interests.
Ruwan Wanigasooriya
Brigadier
Military Spokesman
Leave a comment