India Prepares Limited Pullout From Sri Lanka

India, which has deployed as many as 75,000 troops in Sri Lanka over the past 10 months to enforce a 1987 peace accord aimed at ending the island nation’s bloody civil war, may soon begin a limited pullout, an Indian diplomatic spokeswoman confirmed Saturday.

The United News of India on Saturday had quoted Indian diplomatic sources as saying the withdrawal of the troops could begin as early as Tuesday, while a report to be published in the Sri Lanka government-owned Sunday Observer said the Indian army’s tank and artillery units will be withdrawn this week.

Indian High Commission spokeswoman Primrose Sharma later confirmed the pullout, but said it will be a limited one, and that this was in line with a statement on Tuesday by Indian Defense Minister K.C. Pant “that forces not required would return to India in the near future.”

Added Sharma: “Departure of a certain number of troops is imminent. (A total pullout) will definitely be a phased withdrawal . . . depending entirely on the situation on the ground.”

An independent Sinhalese newspaper, the Sunday Divaniya, said that as many as 8,000 Indian troops may be involved.

But Nirupam Sen, deputy Indian High Commissioner in Colombo, said that no time has been set for a pullout.

“Some equipment and troops that are not necessary will be sent back, but we are still finalizing the exact time,” said Sen.

The move would come after the Indian army’s worst loss this year. Eighteen soldiers were killed last Sunday in a land-mine blast, believed to be the work of Tamil militants.

India began sending troops to Sri Lanka on July 30, a day after Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Junius R. Jayewardene signed a peace accord aimed at ending a five-year insurgency by the island’s minority Tamils.