IMF should ensure reduced military spending by Sri Lanka – Canadian MP Anandasangaree

Canadian Member of Parliament and the son of the Tamil United Liberation Front Leader V. Anandasangaree, Gary Anandasangaree has written to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ensure that a financial bailout of Sri Lanka has severe reductions on military spending.

“It is imperative that food, education, health, and essential services are not cut. Military spending of over 15 percent of overall Government expenditure is unacceptable,” he has stated.

The letter addressed to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and dated March 20, said, “I am a Member of Parliament in Canada representing the constituency of Scarborough-Rouge Park in Ontario. I have been following with deep concern the deteriorating financial crisis in Sri Lanka and I understand that negotiations have now commenced with the IMF relating to a potential bailout. This letter is therefore to impress the need to ensure that the IMF holds Sri Lanka to account and impose severe reductions on its out-of-control military spending and to ensure that Sri Lanka undertakes a path to peace, accountability, and reconciliation”.