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| Sunday, 26 September 2004 |
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SL troopers off to Haiti by Rashomi Silva Sri Lanka embarked on it's first ever UN peace keeping mission with 128 troopers of the advanced party of the Sri Lankan peace keeping contingent heading to politically volatile, Caribbean state of Haiti yesterday. The contingent consisted of 14 officers, including a medical and an engineering officer and 114 soldiers. The task of the advance party will be to prepare the ground for the arrival of the main body, which was expected in another three weeks said the Commanding Officer of the advance party, Lt. Col. Tissa Jayasuriya. Sri Lankan troops who were fighting a bloody war for past two decades will have to fulfil a different task in the former French colony now devastated by floods. "Our mission will be to help the civilians and to assist interim authorities there to restore normalcy," the Commanding Officer of the SL peace keeping mission Col. Amal Karunasena explained. The Sri Lankan troops would be deployed in Leogane, Petiegave and Kilike to the West of Port-au-Prince, the country's capital and "fortunately the areas were not affected by floods," he added. The departure of the contingent was very emotional, where the families of the officers and soldiers could be seen waving a tearful good bye to their loved ones who were to serve a six- month term in Haiti. At the conclusion of six months the first contingent will be replaced by another contingent. The first batch of 48 officers and 750 soldiers were selected from the Sri Lanka Light Infantry the oldest regiment in the Army, and the next batch will be selected from the second most oldest regiment, on a standard process, the Army announced. Each serving personnel will be paid a USD 128 as wages, $ 68 as uniform up keeping allowance and $ 5 for the personal weapon by the UN and the troopers will get their monthly salaries as usual. One solider would earn as four times of foreign exchange as one domestic aide would earn and we would have less complications with soldiers, a senior military official said. The ultimate aim is to boost the Army recruitment, the official said. A better paid soldier will have a better quality of life and a soldier with a high standard of life will impress that the Army is an organisation that has a future for them, he explained. |
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