Chinese Say No To Almost Expired Weapons And Ammunition?

by Ashanthi Warunasuriya and Camelia Nathaniel

However, the Chinese had found that the weapons and ammunition were stored in poor condition affecting its future usage and so had refused to accept them.When contacted by The Sunday Leader, Army spokesman, Brigadier Jayanath Jayaweera said that he did not have the required information to respond to the question.

Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi told The Sunday Leader that measures are being taken to sell the weapons and ammunition which are about to expire and since the process is still underway he cannot comment further.The Sunday Leader reported last week how China North Industries Corporation, better known as Norinco, had been approached to sell the weapons and ammunition.

Norinco is a state-run conglomerate best known for the production and export of firearms and other types of military ordnance, and is China’s largest weapons manufacturer, and the bulk of the weapons for the Sri Lanka Army was supplied by them.

The cabinet approval for the disposing of these stocks of weapons was given in April this year and the military was in the process of negotiating with Norinco to send these stocks of almost out-dated ammunition, when the Salawa incident occurred.

“The excess ammunition and the out-dated ones should have been disposed of right after the war, perhaps in 2010 or 2011. We are not using some of the ammunition that is in stock now and the shelf life of some of them are about to expire. These things should have been looked at by the authorities,” an army official told The Sunday Leader.