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Eastern elections before year end

Settlement to ethnic problem must be long lasting and acceptable to all, says President:

COLOMBO: Eastern Province elections will be held before the end of the year, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.

“We will demonstrate the viability of a Tamil-Sinhala-Muslim partnership. In any peace settlement I have to carry the Sinhala voters with me.

I cannot unilaterally impose a settlement - it has to be the outcome of a political process - an outcome that must be long-lasting and acceptable to the people,” President Rajapaksa in an interview published in the News Post India.

“I differ from my opponents who say peace at any price. I say peace, yes, but peace with honour and dignity,” he declared.

The President said that the Tamils do have genuine grievances but asserts that any settlement of the ethnic conflict will have to be built on a unitary state to win the backing of the Sinhalese majority which considers federalism an anathema.

In the most extensive and candid interview he has given since taking power in November 2005, Rajapaksa also said he hoped to hold elections by the end of 2007 in the Eastern province, which the military has seized from the Tigers.

“Federalism is a negative word in Sri Lanka because people think it (is) synonymous with dividing the country. Also, I prefer the phrase ‘power sharing’ to ‘devolution’,” the President said.

“But it is not like making instant coffee. Ultimately, it would be a mistake for Western governments to allow their frustrations with the slow pace of (political) reform in Sri Lanka to be interpreted as empathy with a terrorist cause.

“I cannot change history or my own political circumstances overnight... You must remember my political legacy and constraints. During my election I received few Tamil votes because of the LTTE-enforced boycott.

“I was elected primarily by a Sinhala constituency on an election manifesto which made it clear that an ultimate solution to the ethnic crisis could be evolved only on the basis of a unitary state.

His comments came as the military prepares to take on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the North.

Hitting out at the LTTE for treating the Norway-sponsored 2003 ceasefire agreement as ‘a joke’, he denied secretly funding the Tigers to ensure a Tamil boycott of the 2005 presidential election.

“This is completely laughable as well as logically absurd. Is it possible in any country for a person who is not even in power to make a deal of this sort ? And how does this allegation co-exist with the earlier description of me as a ‘hawk’ who seeks only a military victory ? I can’t be both things at the same time.

“If I’m a hawk, I cannot be making secret deals (with the LTTE) for a political solution. If I’m for a negotiated settlement, then I cannot possibly be accused of seeking a military solution ! ...

“History shows that secret deals backfire. President (Ranasinghe) Premadasa made such a deal with (LTTE chief Velupillai) Prabhakaran and the LTTE assassinated him.

“If you really believe that we gave him (Prabhakaran) Rs.700 million and got him to organise a boycott of Tamil votes at the presidential election, then we invite you, please, to take the initiative on our behalf and offer him even a much bigger sum of money in return for getting him to the negotiating table so that we may have peace in our country and save so many precious lives.”

The President said he did not believe there was any such thing as ‘Tamil terrorism’. “There are genuine ‘Tamil grievances’ and genuine ‘Tamil aspirations’. And on the other side is LTTE terrorism which we fill fight.”

He added: “I recognise the legitimate historic grievances of our Tamil people. They are Sri Lankans: proud Sri Lankans. And any organised repression of the rights of any Sri Lankan is a blot on all Sri Lankans.”

Rajapaksa said he had no hidden agenda. But he urged Tamil groups to “present a united agenda and concrete proposals for peace. Prabhakaran does not speak for all Tamils. The vast majority of Tamil people want peace above everything and to them Eelam is just an illusion”.

Calling the LTTE leader ‘the main obstacle to peace’, he said: “With or without Prabhakaran, genuine Tamil grievances, the compulsions of their ethnic honour and linguistic identity need to be respected and addressed or the problems will not be solved.”

Asked about criticism that he was not doing enough to further a political solution to the ethnic strife, Rajapaksa blamed ‘instant experts’ for ‘giving their textbook analyses and solutions for decades with the aim of influencing donors ... to pressure my country into imposing their theoretical solutions rather than letting us negotiate a settlement based on a Sri Lankan consensus and Sri Lankan realities.”

He wants India to play’a much bigger role’ to end Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict and also to check arms smuggling by the Tigers by sea.

At the same time, he is urging Indian Tamil leaders to guide ‘misguided’ Tamils in his country to unite ‘behind a peaceful solution’ to a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives and shows no signs of ending.

Rajapaksa also said that while Colombo might keep buying weapons from Pakistan and China, ‘I will never allow Sri Lanka to be used as a base for operations by any power that may threaten India’s security.

Asked why he looked for help from ‘outside powers’ including India against the LTTE while advocating a Sri Lankan solution, he said his country was getting international help ‘to an extent as never before’.

‘But our most special relationship is with India,’ he said. ‘I understand India perhaps more than any other political leader in our country today.’

Asserting that the stability and prosperity of Sri lanka and India cannot be de-linked, Rajapaksa said: That is why I have been repeatedly requesting the Indian government to play a much bigger role in helping Sri Lanka solve our crisis.

“It is not only I who look to India for this. In fact the whole world is looking to India to provide the initiative that would move the peace process forward...We too look to India to help us protect our democracy from the threat of terrorism... ‘We need India’s help in the seas around Jaffna and Trincomalee to prevent terrorist arms being smuggled into our country.

‘We make a special appeal to India’s Tamil leaders to take the initiative in helping even the misguided though small section of our Tamil population unite behind a peaceful solution to their problems.

The President said Sri Lanka’s arms purchases from Pakistan and China were nothing new. They constitute the continuance of a long practice. They are among the countries from which we have been traditionally purchasing arms for a long time.

‘In my first meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, I assured him that so long as I am at the helm of my country’s affairs, I will never allow Sri Lanka to be used as a base for operations by any power that may threaten India’s security.

He added that his personal emissaries had been visiting India’ and keeping your people informed, fully informed, of every development.

‘India is fully aware of our deals with China’s Poly Technologies for supplies of ammunition and ordnance for our army and navy in addition to varied small arms. We have also informed the Indian government of our plans to acquire MiG 29 fighters to boost our air power.’

Pointing out that India was the first country to ban the LTTE, he said: ‘Given her own domestic compulsions, which we fully appreciate, India has been a bulwark of emotional, economic and moral support. They have given us training, radars and defensive equipment.

‘When I was asked what I thought of India’s nuclear underground test, I said it was something all Asians should be proud about because India had emerged as South Asia’s first superpower, and show that we, Asians will not succumb to big power pressures any more.

‘I also said that a strong India can play a much larger role in ensuring peace in our region in the long run. People now tell me that I was then ‘ahead of my times”.

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