No room for LTTE in Singapore

SINGAPORE: Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama was assured yesterday by the Singapore Government that it will work closely with the Sri Lankan authorities to curb any possible use of Singaporean territory by the LTTE for its operations.

The Minister received this assurance when he met with the Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo and Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean in separate meetings yesterday. The Minister was accompanied by Foreign Secretary Dr. Palitha Kohona. Bogollagama and the Foreign Secretary are in Singapore to attend the Sixth Annual Asian Security Summit - the Shangri-La Dialogue, which commenced its sessions yesterday night in Singapore.

The Shangri-La Dialogue is a forum organised by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IUISS) and brings together 25 official government delegations led mainly by Defence Ministers, Foreign Ministers, Chiefs of Defence Staff and other senior officials, who will deliberate on security-related issues with legislators, experts, academics and business people from Asia-Pacific region and key outside powers.

Bogollagama is scheduled to address the forum tomorrow in the plenary session "Securing Regional waters: How much progress?" The Sri Lanka delegation also includes Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Chief of Staff Air Chief Marshall Donald Perera, Sri Lanka's High Commissioner in Singapore Shehan Ratnavale and the Foreign Ministry's Director General/Public Communications Ravinatha Arayasingha and Director General/East Asia and Pacific Ahmed Jawad.

Bogollagama who is paying his first visit to Singapore since assuming office as Foreign Minister, briefed the Singaporean Ministers on current developments in Sri Lanka including the efforts being made to counter the terrorist threat posed by the LTTE.

The Singaporean authorities expressed understanding of the situation faced by Sri Lanka and offered to co-operate with the Sri Lanka Government. The Minister discussed a draft MoU with the Singaporean Government on intelligence sharing and also technical assistance with regard to container surveillance.

The Singapore Government also assured Sri Lanka that it would closely monitor possible LTTE efforts to use Singapore as a nodal point for money laundering and for satellite transmission of its television programmes. Closer co-operation on curbing human smuggling was also discussed.

Bogollagama, also delivered a public lecture on "Sri Lanka; Safe Destination for Bossiness" at a well attended forum organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies in association with the Singapore Business Federation and Singapore Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Ritz Carlton Hotel last morning.

Addressing an audience which included a cross section of academics, business leaders and prospective investors he said Singapore had always been a partner in the progress of Sri Lanka being one of the largest investors in Sri Lanka with a number of pioneer projects since 1977.

He said successive Governments since 1977 had maintained market oriented economic policies having considered the importance of private sector led economic growth. He said Sri Lanka's steady growth is an ample testimony to show private sector performance in the economy.

The Minister added that Sri Lanka offers a number incentives, most importantly safety of foreign investment is guaranteed by the country's constitution. Many foreign investors are doing well in Sri Lanka and were expanding their operations.

The Minister highlighted the success story of Dialog Malaysia which has earned US $ 70 million net profit in 2006 and has invested another US $ 150 million on an expansion.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Dr. Palitha Kohona has said, it is time the international community clearly distinguished between the concerns of the Tamil community and the violence perpetrated allegedly in its name by the LTTE.

Dr. Kohona made this observation in an address on "Combating the LTTE at Home and Overseas - Engaging the International Community" at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research of the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore yesterday.

Dr. Kohona said it was misleading to draw an artificial distinction between "corrigible terrorists" who use violence allegedly to force political change, and "incorrigible terrorists" who are those that are extremists and for ideological reasons dare to challenge the big powers of the world by unleashing violence.

He said one can have a perfectly valid cause and yet if one commits terrorist acts, it is terrorism regardless. He noted that the UN had adopted 13 conventions against different aspects of terrorism and a comprehensive convention was being negotiated.

He said while several countries have actively cracked down on LTTE fund raising activity, there is an urgent need for countries that have proscribed the LTTE to take action in the many major centres of LTTE fund raising and to ensure that pressure is brought on the LTTE to step down from its position of intransigence and to transform itself.

The LTTE had caused untold suffering to the very Tamil community it claims to solely represents and is now heavily engaged in extensive commercial activity. The LTTE had been accused of working in alliance with Jihadi Movements in the international narcotics trade and is engaged in money laundering, credit card fraud, people smuggling and arms smuggling, the Foreign Secretary said.

Dr. Kohona said the LTTE didn't tell the world that 54 per cent of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka live in the south of the country alongside the other communities; 39 per cent of Colombo is Tamil; that the Sinhala and Tamil communities have lived together in harmony for thousands of years; that major Hindu festivals are national holidays in Sri Lanka; that Tamil people hold positions of responsibility in government and in the private sector; that Tamil political parties are well represented in Parliament and that successive governments have redressed grievances of the Tamil community.

He said the Sri Lanka Government's approach has always been to remain willing to have talks with a view to discussing a final solution that will bring much desired peace to the north of Sri Lanka. However, the government reserved the right to safeguard its people from being used as human shields by the LTTE, and also the right to safeguard the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka.