Sri Lanka established a Model to defeat Terrorism
In an exclusive interview, with ‘The Asian Age’ Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa says that Sri Lanka’s military victory over the LTTE offers lessons for the international community.
Following are excerpts of the interview on 15th September, 2010.
Q. Recently you visited India for defence talks. There was defence cooperation for years before and during the conflict, so what are both sides talking today?
A. India could not do certain things, meet certain needs of the Sri Lankan armed forces, like supply of weapons, because of the sensitivities during the conflict period. Now that issue is no longer there, so we can think of going beyond that. The whole idea is to improve the defence relationship, to strengthen regional security, to improve maritime security in the Indian Ocean.
Q. There are concerns in India about China looking to beef up its presence in Sri Lanka, particularly its role in the Hambantota port project.
A. It is purely a business arrangement, nothing beyond that. I don’t think there is any issue in that sense. Wherever possible, when India has faced any security concerns, we have always bent backwards to accommodate them. With India, we are not looking at government-to-government relations alone; we are interested in people-to-people ties and trade. I know that Indian investors are interested in infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka. We are studying India’s successful PPP (public-private partnership) model.
Q. There has been criticism of the delay in the rehabilitation of the displaced Tamils.
A. I don’t think any other place in the world has so quickly resettled these people in their original habitats in such a short period. In one year we have resettled a majority of the three lakh IDPs. Very few are remaining, and that is because of the delay in clearing landmines. We cannot solve problems overnight but the government has aggressively invested more money in the North and East than the other provinces.
Q. Sri Lanka has also been criticized for not minimizing the civilian casualties of the war.
A. India knows what is LTTE but most of the outside world does not. It was a most ruthless terrorist organisation. Some think the attack on the USS Cole was the first attack by a terrorist group but by that time the LTTE had done many attacks on ships. It had done more suicide attacks in one year in Sri Lanka than all the suicide attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq put together. The LTTE’s weaponry was equivalent to that of the armed forces – heavy artillery guns, mortars, machine guns, missiles, Naval suicide boats and, ultimately, even small aircraft. That was the magnitude of its military strength. So it was not a small insurrection or a civil disturbance. By defeating the LTTE, we have stopped the killings of innocent civilians.
Q. How are you dealing with the former LTTE combatants?
A. We have rehabilitated about 500 child soldiers. We started a skill development programme for the 11,000 former combatants who surrendered; some of whom have completed this programme and joined the society. This is the truth but the other side does not know the true story.
Q. What can the world learn from Sri Lanka’s experience with terrorism?
A. What we have done is to defeat the terrorists. I should say any country which faces terrorism should follow the Sri Lankan model. I think in fighting terrorism as well as humanitarian assistance in a conflict like this, there are lots of lessons for others to learn rather than criticise. But there were concerns about humanitarian assistance during the conflict. Our military operations and humanitarian assistance ran parallely. One can say the actions were not effective, maybe there were weaknesses, but it was a success. Of course, there were issues but in a situation there would be issues. We had no-fire-zones and restrictions on use of heavy weapons which are not normally done anywhere in the world in this type of situation, but we did that.
Q. Looking back at the last days of the conflict, would you have done anything differently? There were reports that some LTTE leaders wanted to surrender but they were shot, there was also talk of ceasefire.
A. Prabhakaran did not want to surrender. Even the night before they were defeated, they tried to launch a counter attack and escape. There would have been no problem if they had surrendered, but we came to that last minute after a hard battle and a lot of sacrifices, so we were not ready for ceasefire.
Q. And did they inform the UN?
A. Nobody informed us about any surrender. We took the time to defeat the LTTE because of the civilians. If we had no such concerns, we could have bombarded the place, used all our artillery and walked through within a day but we took over two months. So the international community must consider the risks that we took.
Q. Looking ahead, do you have a political solution of the ethnic problem, a devolution package?
A. Political jargons alone will not bring about a solution. We have created an environment for everybody to live peacefully, as Sri Lankans, as one nation. All other issues are for politicians. The ground reality is we must give people the opportunity to live peacefully, with jobs and education. That is what they want and the government will ensure that is there in Sri Lanka.
Q. What will be your message to the Lankan-Tamils living in India and abroad?
A. Some of them left long ago; others, more recently. The second and third generations have concerns about their children’s education. I know it is difficult to give all that up and come. But if they come, they are most welcome. I think they must bring their know-how, knowledge, and invest their wealth here because development is the main requirement.
Courtesy: The Asian Age
Last Updated ( Thursday, 16 September 2010 )
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CENSORED
Sameer is by name a Muslim. Two hundred Muslims were killed as they prayed on a Friday in their church in Baticaloa by the padada kotiyas on orders of their so-called ‘sun god’, who has vested in himself power over life and death of our people. This was an act of pure evil, genocide. The evil imperial West called it ‘racial cleansing’, a euphemism, as if it is same as laundering dirty linen, something good. However, when the terrorist evil kotiyas were destroyed wholesale in the final battle, the imperial West and the paradesi kotiyas called it genocide. They twist their words to deceive the ‘Freeworld’. Many more Muslims in the North and East were driven out of their traditional homelands and their assets robbed. Those who failed to leave were massacred, mostly the old and the sick. The imperial West did not cry for VP and his terrorist buddies be arrested and hauled before The Hague. They exercised double standards. The LTTE were their ‘boys’ fighting their cause to capture the whole of SL as a strategic base for the yankees against India and China, since the yankees feared the rising power of these two nations.
The Hon Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, is our hero for finding our home-grown solution to the terrorist problem. He should remain our Defence Secretary for as long as his brother is the President. We need heroes like him to defend our country against the vested interests of imperial West and the paradesi kotiyas and the traitors within. The man before him was a corrupt traitor who betrayed the Sinhala army and the motherland to the kotiyas and the imperial West for a pot of porridge. He deserves public hanging for his treachery along with RW, SF, JJ and a host of other traitors. I hope HE the President does not pardon them but exercise justice for the nation and heed our call.
Though we should maintain diplomatic niceties with India due to the need of the hour, we must always remember Indian leaders are also our enemies. Indira Gandhi began the rot by unleashing on us the terrorist kotiyas after training them in Tamil Nadu, funding and providing with military equipment and even soldiers to fight along side against our heroic Sinhala army. It was like the Chola, Pandya invasions repeating themselves. Each time we nearly vanquished and captured VP, the Indians interfered like the imperial West to free him to fight another day, to destroy our economy over 30 years. The Indians hoped to establish Tamil nation in SL and encourage all the rabid Tamil extremists in India to migrate to Sri Lanka from Tamil Nadu. This was the Indian diversionary ploy to avert a destructive war in their own hands for Tamil Nadu autonomy. India too should compensate us with billions of dollars for the economic set-back of our great nation by their dirty deals. It is very important that the Government of SL and our Sinhala nation understand this fundamental truth about India. India is not really our friend. They sold us their decrepit Radar warning system, pretending to do us a favour. This radar was so obsolete it did not even detect the slow flying LTTE suicide aircraft gifted by Norway. India then equipped themselves with a better and modern radar system from Israel, partly financed from the decrepit one they sold us. When their trick was exposed they pretended to update it for us at a cost. They also prevented us from buying modern sophisticated radar system from Israel or China which covered the whole of the island, unlike the obsolete Indian one with only a limited range. I urgently call on the Defence Secretary. to disregard Indian pressure and modernise our Radar system to cover the whole of the island with a sophisticated Chinese system. We cannot trust Israel as they are pro-imperial West. Let us also modernise our defence capabilities in air, sea and land in all aspects with the help of China, who we can trust against our enemies, the yankee and tommy mad dogs, who have slaughtered the innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, and continue to do so with blatant disregard to human rights. Ban Ki-Moon is their boy who does as he is told. He does not even raise a whimper against the imperial West. He is corrupt. However, he flexes his muscle against us, a small nation, when we totally eliminated our terrorist problem, while India, USA and Britain are still struggling to cope with it.
Our home made strategies are the best. Even India has acknowledged it and sends their defence commanders to learn from us. Let us not stop at this but progress forward in leaps and bounds to make SL economically and militarily strong so that even India will not dare to attack us. Let us truly be the Shining Star of Asia and also a power to reckon with.
Let us also in the forthcoming year of Buddha Jayanthi spread the holy doctrine of Buddha Damma to the whole world for spiritual re-genration of the world and hence the economic upliftment of the world. Let us in the spirit of Lord Buddha care for the people of the world, and all life, animal and plant, and protect our envoironment from wanton destruction. The yankees and the tommies having destroyed their forests are now destroying the valubale rain forests of Brazil to breed cattle to feed the imperial West. Th rain forest are the lungs of the world. They breathe in carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen for us to breathe. There is this symbiotic relationship. Destroy this and the whole world is dead.
yes yes sameer is muslim ganesh is tamil, but we are
sri lankan not an indian like you
yes mainly our president,Hon Gotabhaya Rajapaksa
general sarath fonsska thies ar our our hero’s for
ever
Nicholas Dias you are the real
uneducated bone sucker with buttering attitude
Ganesh, you are mangling the Queens English. I’d rather you stick t It is better you return to Tamil Nadu o your father’s tongue, Tamil, as you cannot even speak Sinhala properly. You even refer to Sinhalese as ‘Singalese’. This is typically Tamil way of speaking.
By the way I am not an Indian. I am a noble, blue-blooded Sinhala Buddhist, born and bred in Sri Lanka, unlike your kallathoni ancestors. It is better you migrate back to Tamil Nadu along with your kith and kin to campaign for your Tamil homeland ‘eelam’ over there for the 70 million Tamils. Don’t pretend you are on the side of MR and GR. You are a kotiya sleeping for the moment till a VP2 rises to lead a new Tamil terrorist outfit.
Don’t worry about my English you buttering man, at less I can communicate and I stand up my self like a lion, I do two jobs to get my usual income not like you depending on our salary like other politician, you are here for comment or buttering to bad politician because you don’t feel the paining
We do feel paining the cost of leaving
I do buy the chicken do you know the current price – no not at all because we pay you (by the way 350-420 RS)
Rice ?? bread ?? how can I afford to feed my family on present food cost ??
But you get phone allowance, accommodation, good food ++ – free & free – we stil stupid to paying you
But donkeys like you keep on buttering and trying to involved innocent people again in to corruption politics again n again
He heee kapuwath nel leee, mooda harako, ape nuwara game aya,mage seeyath keuwee ookama thamai, mage thaththa ha ammath nel paata, mamath chande damme nel paatata thamai, u moran but we was stupid,
Whay should I trying to pretend any person I speak real, you buttering many look ta your coment what you trying to get salary “its very clear we paying you to comment on enet “ how ambaries n shame on u ,do you have balls by the way??
He he don’t call me Koteya mr.butter, I have admit 11th grad in “daham paasal”
My opening is not to vote again at all till I see the right person, may be present government will be fine but later, not in this tax tax way,
Mr.butter Nicholas dias “pinpade kaaraya” pls work like a man be stand up from urn back bone, don’t eat our money, do a good job instead of buttering on enet
Has a sri lankan we called you “pin pade kaarayo”
I don’t care any color , I need to see lower food cost
Ganesh, you are murdering the Queen’s English. I advise you to stick to writing to Tamil Net or Sudar Oli in your native father’s tongue.
You say, “We do feel paining the cost of leaving” Leaving where? The golden shores of SL to Australia or Canada? Perhaps you should join these kallathoni kotiyas and head for the sunset. But I think you should head for Tamil Nadu, the land of your ancestors. You will find the ‘cost of leaving’ cheaper there and get 4 square meals a day in a nice big house rent free, instead of a mudukkuva in SL. You can vote for Tamil nationalist politicians there to make Tamil Nadu autonomous, for the 70 million tamilians. But if you decide to stay here you may go on voting for TNA, they will bring the cost of ‘leaving’ down as VP did for 300,000 of his people.By the way, stop eating chicken if it is costly. Why don’t you become a vegetarian instead as most Hindus are? Grow your own vegetables you moron, you will then have plenty to eat. It is healthy, unlike eating meat, injected with chemicals which will lead to cancer and heart disease. Don’t expect the government to feed you also for free. Stop moaning! If you don’t like the country just get out as the other kallathonis did. Good riddance!
pentheenduwo sri lanka is my country,i dont traval any other Country why should i,may be when i feel traval i’llcome to ur place to give u a lolipop-then u will see i’m tamilnaadu or sri lankan,tamilnaadu ur mother not me.. why dont u go to kalaniya jorker with paba..
your eating and taking pin pade..gon wassa,
for u its doesn’t matter vege or meaty u get free all of it from the government-witch is our money
konda pana nathnam or balls nathnam hegaa kaapan my friend has a origenal sri lankan, stand up ur self,
why ar u taking our money – pin pade kraya..