Dr. Jayalath Jayawardana’s comments in India ‘betrays Sri Lanka, shields LTTE’

INDIA: Gampaha district UNP MP Dr. Jayalath Jayawardana during his Indian visit has reportedly made comments damaging to both Sri Lanka and the Government even disregarding the Foreign Ministry stance on the Indian fishermen issue.

Dr. Jayawardana has made these detrimental comments at a media conference in Chennai on March 14, sources from India said.

Referring to reports about the killing of Indian fishermen, Dr. Jayawardana has said that he would raise the issue in Parliament and he was sent by his party leader on a fact finding tour for this purpose.

By his comments Dr. Jayawardana is giving credence to the reports that the Sri Lanka Navy was responsible for these alleged killings of Indian fishermen.

The UNP MP has totally disregarded the Foreign Ministry statement denying any involvement in such killing by Sri Lanka Navy personnel or naval vessels.

The Foreign Ministry has also pointed out that it is reasonable to assume the reports (of attacks on Indian fishermen by the Sri Lanka Navy) are being instigated by the LTTE with a vested interest in attempting to damage the strong bilateral relationship between India and Sri Lanka.

It is widely known that the LTTE has been engaged in the practice of attacking Indian fishing trawlers with the sole aim of discrediting the Navy.

According to political observers in Colombo, these comments made in India, which is a friendly country and Sri Lanka’s closest neighbour, can be only considered as a betrayal of the country in general and the Sri Lanka Navy in particular, while attempting to shield the LTTE from any suspicion in this regard.

Dr. Jayawardana is also reported in New Indian Express as stating that the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government had “Derailed for petty political mileage” the peace process initiated by the Ranil Wickremesinghe Government, which had signed a ceasefire agreement with the LTTE.

This position is rebutted by political observers who say that any derailing of the peace process and gross violation of the ceasefire agreement had been done by the LTTE, from the time it was signed under the UNP administration. They state that the LTTE has already violated the CFA more than 7,000 times.

They also point out that the derailing of the peace process was seriously initiated by the LTTE when it unilaterally walked out of negotiations with the Government in April 2003; that the stalled negotiations were resumed by the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government last year, and that the LTTE had again walked away from these negotiations, too.

Dr. Jayawardana is obviously engaged in an exercise of shielding the terrorists of the LTTE, especially when anti-LTTE opinion in Tamil Nadu is building up due to its attempts to use Tamil Nadu as a base for its terrorist activities, these observers further said.