The UNP yesterday demanded that the government sell off the armaments, including artillery pieces, and guns, multi barrel rocket launches, fighting craft like, MIG 275 and other military hardware, to a country where there is a war so that the government could earn some money.

UNP MP Lakshman Seneviratne, participating in the Emergency Debate, said that the military hardware was no longer of use to his country. "As the war had been brought to a successful end, the armaments are no longer of importance to us. If we do not sell them off now, at some later date we’ll have to sell them as scrap iron," he said.

He requested Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake to take action to develop a plan to market the armaments to another country and earn some money. "We do not mind even if somebody gets a cut as a commission from the deal," he said.

Power Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage said that they did not want to sell off the equipment that was used by war heroes. They are symbols of our national pride. It is the UNP that is selling off everything that it can lay its hands on".

Minister Aluthgamage said that the equipment could be displayed in war museums as in China.