View Sri Lanka without blinkers
– Foreign Minister

[Friday, February 08, 2008 - 08.15 GMT]  

It is important that the international community views the totality of the developments in Sri Lanka without blinkers, and adjusts to the new ground reality - that the LTTE is not the sole representative of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka and has never genuinely engaged in peace negotiations, said Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama participating in the Emergency Debate in Parliament on Wednesday February 6.
  
“On 23 January 2008, this effort bore fruit with the All Party Representatives Committee (APRC) proposals that identified a course of action to achieve maximum and effective devolution of power to the Provinces that could be done most expeditiously within the framework of the present Constitution being presented. It was a new approach, and a pragmatic way forward following a series of failed attempts at bringing about constitutional reforms,” the Minister added.
  
The Minister also said that with a view to keeping the Tamil community abroad informed of the progressive steps being taken by the government in relation to the present conflict with clarity and credibility, the Foreign Ministry will re-launch its International Tamil Newsletter ‘Nambikkai’, commencing February 2008
  
The statement:  
  
“If the first month of January is to be any indicator, the year 2008 promises to be the decisive year in which terrorism is eradicated from our land and democracy restored to all corners of our country. The Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa has shown considerable courage in moving in this direction.

”On 3 January 2008, the government announced its decision to terminate the Ceasefire Agreement with effect from 16 January, thereby ending not only a modality that had been used as a tool by the LTTE to gain respectability and parity of status, but also make irrelevant all other minority groups in the pursuit of resolution of the present conflict. If there was any concern in any quarter that the termination of the CFA was a prelude to the Sri Lanka Government embarking on an all out offensive, the subsequent events would surely have proved them wrong, for instead what happened was a re-doubling of efforts to find a practical and implementable solution to meet the political aspirations aspirations of all Sri Lankans.

”On 23 January 2008, this effort bore fruit with the All Party Representatives Committee (APRC) proposals that identified a course of action to achieve maximum and effective devolution of power to the Provinces that could be done most expeditiously within the framework of the present Constitution being presented. It was a new approach, and a pragmatic way forward following a series of failed attempts at bringing about constitutional reforms. The significance of these proposals was that these were implementable steps in a continuing process for greater devolution of power, with the objective of achieving a final and durable political settlement acceptable to all communities in Sri Lanka . After 20 years, the present formulation, will see the letter and spirit of the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement of 1987 being fully implemented in the areas it was most intended to serve. These proposals received the concurrence of all the members of the Committee, including the Tamil and Muslim parties represented. It is envisaged that the momentum generated by working together on the basis of these proposals will enable all communities to build trust, that is a pre requisite to embark on further constitutional reforms.

”Upto now, the near 1 million Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora that live particularly in the West have heard only one point of view – that of the LTTE. In fear of being harassed by LTTE agents in their host countries the level of interaction between our expatriate Tamil population and missions abroad has sadly declined, and as a result our ability to get across our message to them has been obstructed. The Foreign Ministry considers it an important part of its responsibility to communicate with these expatriate Sri Lankans. With a view to arresting this shortcoming and keeping the Tamil community abroad informed of the progressive steps being taken by the government in relation to the present conflict with clarity and credibility, commencing February 2008, the Foreign Ministry re-launched its International Tamil Newsletter ‘ Nambikkai’, after a lapse of 5 years. (copies of this are being made available to all Hon. Members) We did so, because with the presentation of a strategy to ensure the speedy full implementation of the 13th Amendment, we believe we have a story to tell.

”If there was any doubt, particularly among some sections of the international community, of the true nature of the LTTE, then the past month has sufficiently portrayed them for what they are – as terrorists. The indiscriminate attacks perpetrated over the past month by the LTTE from Buttala in the Deep South to Welioya in the north, killing hundreds of civilians – including many women and children, is a timely reminder of the insincerity of the pretensions of peace of the LTTE and cold blooded ruthlessness which has been the hallmark of this group.

”One should ponder as to why the LTTE is resorting to such barbaric acts in this period. The commonly professed view is that it is reacting to loosing ground to the security forces and seeking to divide the attention of the security forces. This is no doubt true, for today the LTTE’s domination has been reduced to a mere one and a half districts, of the more than 6 districts where it had dominance a little over a year ago.

”However, it is my view that equally, or sometimes even more importantly, the current wave of indiscriminate violence unleashed on civilians by the LTTE in recent weeks, is a response to the fear of loosing political ground and having to give way to the multitude of other minority parties that have embraced the democratic mainstream, in the face of the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government’s more genuine and tangible political settlement on offer.

”It is important that the international community views the totality of the developments in Sri Lanka without blinkers, and adjusts to the new ground reality - that the LTTE is not the sole representative of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka and has never genuinely engaged in peace negotiations. Infact, the LTTE has single handedly torpedoed every single peace effort launched in this country – from the Thimpu talks in 1985, through the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987, the Premadsa- LTTE talks of 1989/90, the Kumaratunga-LTTE talks in 1994/95, the Wicremasinghe-LTTE talks of 2002/2003 and that between the Rajapaksa administration and the LTTE in 2006. The international community must clearly see that while the Rajapaksa Government has in no way closed the door on the LTTE joining Sri Lanka’s rich multi-party democracy, the LTTE giving up its ways of terrorism - the same way the international community demands from all other terrorist groups from the IRA through Al Qaeda - must be a necessary pre-requisite. Sections within the international community that fail to understand this more nuanced reading of present developments in Sri Lanka and insist on the Government of Sri Lanka satisfying only the “thirst of the Tigers” disregarding the larger democratic mainstream that is yearning for an honorable settlement to the present conflict, run the risk of alienating themselves from continuing to be partners in supporting Sri Lanka’s quest for peace.”