Speaking to India Today's Managing Editor Raj Chengappa last week, President Rajapaksa said the Security Forces have Prabhakaran cornered and he will be caught soon. "The day Prabhakaran is caught, military operations would be over. Soon after that we will give a political solution as we did in the East," the President said. 
 

Excerpts from the interview  

Q. If Kilinochchi falls, will the war be over? 

A. I don’t call it a war. It is a military operation we have launched to wipe out terrorists. Kilinochchi is the LTTE headquarters. We are also advancing from the East to take Mullaittivu. Progress is slow because we want zero civilian casualties. 

Q. What’s the difficulty in getting Prabhakaran? 

A. He is in the middle of a thick jungle. We have him cornered and he will be caught soon. 

Q. Will Prabhakaran's capture end the civil war? 

A. The day Prabhakaran is caught, military operations would be over. Soon after that we will give a political solution as we did in the East. Now, one of LTTE’s child soldiers is the Chief Minister and another of Prabhakaran’s commanders is a Member of Parliament. But Prabhakaran must be punished for his crimes. Let’s not forget he killed Rajiv Gandhi apart from so many Sri Lankan leaders. He has to undergo trial and if India is interested in having him extradited we will do that. 

Q. Will you yield to pressure from Tamil Nadu political parties to have a ceasefire? 

A. When the LTTE wanted a ceasefire we gave that in the past and they used it to strengthen themselves— buy weapons, firepower, recruit soldiers and make bunkers. We know they will not honour a ceasefire now. Let them lay down their arms and surrender. We will declare a ceasefire. 

Q. When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to you, did he talk about a ceasefire? 

A. No, he didn’t request me to declare a ceasefire. His concern was about the Tamil civilian population. India has been fair. It is focused on the humanitarian issue, especially of the Tamils in the North and the East, which we are taking care of. 

Q. India has maintained that there can be no military solution and wants a parallel political process. 

A. I agree that there can be no military solution. Soon after I took over, we appointed an all party committee to look into this issue. I believe that if the southern political parties, that form the majority, do not accept a political solution then we can’t implement it. I don’t want to thrust a solution on parties. If I can have all the parties agree to a solution to solve the problem it would be appreciated by the people. Otherwise there will be riots and no government will be able to implement it. 

Q. Why did you send out humanitarian agencies from the war zone?