RATMALANA, (Sri Lanka), Aug 11: Inside a fortified camp ringed by moats, barbed wire and bamboo thickets, new recruit Rajita De Silva plunges her bayonet into a dummy.

``The time has come for us to join the war and save our country,'' she says later at her training post.

De Silva, the 21-year-old daughter of a goldsmith, is a bit of a rare commodity in Sri Lanka. Military officials say young people with such a patriotic attitude and solid middle class background are becoming more and more reluctant to fight in the country's civil war, now in its 14th year.

Young Sri Lankans once saw a military career as a sure way to a good salary and social status. That was before ethnic Tamil separatists took up arms against the government, controlled by the Sinhalese ethnic majority.

Now career-minded young people are avoiding the dangers of a bloody war, and the military finds itself competing for recruits against 200 or so foreign companies here to attract the best and brightest.

Those it does sign up might not stick around for long. The military says that more than 12,000 soldiers have deserted the army in recent months. Last month, it offered an amnesty for deserters 4,400 people reported in.

Sri Lanka, an Indian Ocean nation with 18 million people, has 1,14,000 people in military service. The government estimates the Tamil Tiger rebels have 5,000 fighters, but exact numbers are unknown.

Brigadier Sarath Munasinghe, the military's top spokesman, said it has been particularly hard to find Air Force pilots, and motivated, intelligent candidates to serve as officers on the battlefield.

He did not give recruiting figures.

The situation is so serious that the military has had to dip into the nation's pool of 35,000 police officers to support troops at the war front.

Every week, top Sri Lankan newspapers carry full-page colour advertisements appealing for military volunteers. Radio and television announcements blare the same message, and the government asks village elders to try to persuade young people in rural Lanka to fight.

``The choice is yours,'' says one advertisement showing a young man in jeans and old sports shoes next to one in a smart uniform.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.