Mahinda blames TNA and Tamil diaspora for delaying reconciliation
December 29, 2011, 9:32 pm
By S Venkat Narayan Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI, December 28: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has squarely blamed the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Tamil diaspora for the delay in finding a political solution to the ethnic problem even 31 months after the three-decade-long bloody civil war ended.
In an interview to The Asian Age newspaper published here today, Rajapaksa said the TNA has the same attitude as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). "They demand impossible things: merger of the North and the East, land policy and police."
The president said: "The TNA seems to be driven by the Tamil diaspora, which does not want peace and political settlement because they fear that their host countries might then send them back home."
The TNA cannot represent the same separatist agenda of the LTTE, which will not find acceptance with the majority population. "I want to work towards a solution but the TNA is not cooperating," Rajapaksa complained.
In his opinion, the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) is a good approach to what has been a vexed problem because, in a democracy, it is Parliament that will ultimately have to agree to any solution.
"Unfortunately, the TNA has not named its representatives to the PSC. We are keen on a sustainable political settlement. But it must have wide acceptance, especially in the context of the post-conflict situation."
Regional autonomy, he said, was a slogan used by the terrorists and their apologists. "The need is for strong unity in diversity, for which regional autonomy is not the only way. A better approach would be equality of opportunity, and the spread of democratic freedom and rights, together with speedy economic development of the north, in tandem with other regions of the country."
Answering a question on devolution, the president explained: "We have already elected provincial councils in all provinces other than the North. It will be established there, too. There must be discussions on how the provincial administrations could be strengthened and improved, with greater economic and development activity devolved. This is a process of democratic expansion, in which all communities and political groups, as well as the key economic players, should participate."
Asked why provincial council elections are not being held in the North, he said: "Elections will certainly be held in the near future. But one must realise the importance of the elections to a provincial council, which gives genuine opportunity to the people to participate. It is no secret that in the parliamentary elections that were held during the conflict, the people of the North were not allowed to exercise their franchise.
"The LTTE acted against such democratic expression. Another fact is that the voting was on an old and outdated register, which makes the TNA’s success not as big as it seems. The LTTE prevented the conduct of a census in the north. Once proper electoral registers are prepared, we can hold election to the northern provincial council," he added.
Q: The Tamils are complaining that the North remains highly militarised even now. There are over 100,000 troops policing about 300,000 people. It is said that the Army’s permission is required even to hold a library association meeting or a school function. When do you propose to bring down Army’s involvement in the civil administration there?
The president: There are more than 300,000 Tamils in the north. The military presence is not worked out in proportion to the population but the security needs of the region. The presence of the military in an area that has seen brutal armed conflict for nearly three decades does not amount to militarisation.
He went on: "The military is playing a significant role in building infrastructure as the locals lack skills. Also, large sections of the north are yet to be de-mined. It is not true that school functions or library meetings and such activities require the permission of the military. But there could be cautious surveillance, knowing the nature of the defeated enemy. We are still getting hidden arms caches of the LTTE. The presence of the military will be phased out in keeping with security needs."
Responding to a query on the Tamils’ fears that their lands are being taken over to set up new Army camps or to be given to Sinhalese businessmen, Rajapaksa said it is the LTTE rump which spreads these canards. The armed forces and their camps are present throughout our country. This is necessary to ensure Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity and to protect its sovereignty.
The president pointed out that there were many Muslims and Sinhalese in Jaffna before the LTTE chased them away by committing the first ethnic cleansing. "Whether it is the Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims, anyone who has been chased out of their traditional homes must be given their lands back. The majority status enjoyed by the Tamils in the northern province will not be changed by any actions of the government," he declared.
(Muslims had accounted for about nine percent and Sinhalese a little over one percent of the Jaffna peninsula’s population till the early 1970s. The LTTE had conducted a sustained brutal campaign to drive the Muslims and Sinhalese away from the North. The two-decade-long ethnic cleansing ended in October 1990, when the Tamil Tigers gave just a few hours to all Muslims in the North to leave LTTE-controlled territory, forcing 75,000 of them to flee south into government-controlled towns and villages).
Asked how he plans to deal with the Western countries’ demand for a probe into "war crimes" in Sri Lanka during the last stages of Eelam War IV in early 2009, he claimed that the LTTE remnants in these countries are bringing pressure on political leaders there to raise baseless issues against Sri Lanka.
He said Western countries talk about Kashmir and Sri Lanka in their Parliaments, but keep mum about what they did in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and so on.After the 1880 uprising in Ceylon’s Uva (in the south), the British rulers killed every male aged above 14, and destroyed all water reservoirs to force the people into starvation. They took away land. They did that in India, too. And they talk of human rights now!
The president declared: "The West wants me to be their lackey, and I refuse to be that!"
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