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Sri Lanka Conditions of Service
The regular forces of the army, navy, and airforce were
recruited by voluntary enlistment
(see
fig. 12). Despite the
influence of Buddhist pacifist traditions, the prestige of
government service and the possibility of a stable income have
insured a sufficient flow of new recruits into the three services
even prior to the establishment of a national draft in 1985. As a
result of stringent Sinhala language requirements,
noncommissioned (NCO) ranks of all services were virtually all
Sinhalese. In the army, regular enlisted personnel were required
to sign contracts that were renewable after the fifth and twelfth
years of service. Renewal was contingent on the receipt of good
performance ratings. After twenty-two years of service,
individuals became eligible for pensions, and in the 1980s the
average age of retirement for the enlisted ranks was forty-two.
After completing regular service, recruits were required to
fulfill seven years of obligatory service in the reserves.
Officers were allowed to serve in each rank for a specified
number of years, after which they had either to qualify for the
next higher rank or retire. Because of the small number of
positions available at the higher levels, most officers were
forced to leave the service at about forty-five years of age
(see
fig. 13).
Separate recruiting was conducted for the First Commando
Regiment of the army. Applicants for NCO positions had to be
single and between eighteen and twenty-two years old, and must
have passed the Ordinary Levels of the General Common Entrance
examination in six subjects. Candidates were offered the
possibility of specialized training overseas in such fields as
intelligence, parachuting, and dog handling. Within the navy, the
small size of the total force enabled the leadership to remain
highly selective in its recruitment, and naval personnel had a
uniformly high literacy rate. Recruits committed themselves to
ten years of obligatory service.
After retiring from active service, officers and enlisted
personnel reportedly had considerable difficulty finding suitable
employment. Priority placement in civil service jobs, commonly
offered under the British administration, was no longer available
to military retirees in the 1980s, and former officers spoke out
with bitterness on the failure of the nation to repay its
soldiers for their years of service. In addition, military
pensions reportedly have not kept pace with inflation.
In October 1985, the Parliament passed the Mobilization and
Supplementary Forces Act, which gave the government the power to
draft citizens into the National Armed Reserve. Under this law,
the prime minister, with the approval of Parliament, was
authorized to conscript Sri Lankan citizens eighteen years or
older for one year of basic training and a total of ten years of
reserve service. Under normal conditions, reserves could be
called into active service for up to twenty-one days per year. At
the request of the president, however, reserves could be deployed
in active service for an indefinite period of time in the event
of a war or "in the prevention or suppression of any rebellion or
insurrection or other civil disturbance."
Data as of October 1988
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