Bringing Lanka to the centre of global attention

PRESIDENT Mahinda Rajapaksa's visit to Britain and his upcoming engagements with the Non-aligned Movement in Cuba and the subsequent UN General Assembly sessions in New York, would help greatly in keeping the eyes of the world focused on Sri Lanka and the issues confronting it.

President Rajapaksa's one-to-one meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, besides being a singular diplomatic triumph for President Rajapaksa, helped enhance Sri Lanka's prestige worldwide.

This visit to Britain and the subsequent ones to two prestigious world fora would generate abundant opportunities for the Lankan State to raise global awareness of Lanka's continuing battle against terrorism.

This is an issue on which the democratic world would make common cause with Sri Lanka, and we hope the State would go the extra mile to consolidate the international cooperation extended to Sri Lanka in her efforts to defeat LTTE terrorism in particular.

These engagements abroad would also help greatly in boosting President Rajapaksa's prestige as a Head-of-State and Government, who is more than willing to lend a helping hand to the world in the great, progressive causes launched by it for the betterment of humankind's condition.

As should be known, underdevelopment continues to be an urgent issue among the majority of mankind and there is no doubt that the development problems confronting the Third World would continue to be of tremendous significance to the Non-aligned Movement.

Through his continued engagement with the NAM, President Rajapaksa could facilitate the involvement of Sri Lanka in global efforts to bring material relief and well-being to the majority of humanity.

All in all, Sri Lanka's international image would be rendered resplendent through the international diplomacy undertaken by the President.

While development issues would reverberate in the UN, it is time the democratic world galvanised its efforts to defeat terrorism in general and LTTE terror in particular.

The Sri Lankan State and President Rajapaksa need to play catalytic roles in this regard by enhancing global awareness of the threat posed by terror to the democratic way of life and the very existence of peaceful, law-abiding societies.

Indeed, liberal democracies and peace-loving societies the world over need to be firmly behind Sri Lanka in these efforts because global terror is today casting its shadow far and wide. As is well known not even the world's mightiest capitals are invulnerable to terror and the horrors it unleashes.

Accordingly, Sri Lanka needs to redouble efforts to enlist world support for its battle against terror. It needs to be strongly pointed out that the world has an interest in eradicating terror and its bases of support.

One such base of support consists of Tiger front organisations abroad which continuously help replenish LTTE war chests by raising funds among the Tamil diasporic community in particularly the West.

These front organisations need to be crippled and there is no better way to do it than by enlisting the support of world governments.

Likewise, the cooperation of the world is needed to blunt Tiger narco-terrorism which is proving an international scourge. President Rajapaksa's international initiatives could be of immense worth in this context.

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