Sri Lankan Army to Arrest 10,000 Deserters,

The Sri Lankan army aims to arrest about 10,000 deserters after an amnesty for the soldiers to return to duty expired last month , a spokesman of the ARMY said.

About 5,000 soldiers responded to the amnesty, which was introduced in 2003 and allowed deserters to either return without being punished or pay any money they owed to the military and quit legally.

``We have given enough time for the army deserters to return,'' it cited military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara as saying yesterday.

Sri Lanka's military is fighting an insurgency by the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who have fought for a separate Tamil homeland in the island's north and east since 1983. More than 70,000 people have died in the conflict.