No military offensive against Tigers in North: FM

BELGIUM: Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama in an interview with the BBC World News Today from Brussels denied reports that the Government had launched an all out military offensive against the LTTE in the North.

Interviewed live by Kirsty Lang of the BBC, Bogollagama termed the on-going fresh battles in Mannar, as “limited operations” to clear strategic locations held by the Tigers as part of the State’s strategy to safeguard national security.

The Minister being asked, despite him telling the International Community that the Government wanted to have a negotiated peace settlement with the LTTE, the action on the ground indicate a different story, the Minister responded: “They have seen certain sections of the international community levelling this accusation of all out offensive” despite repeated assurances from him of no such action.

Clarifying a statement by Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, widely reported in the media, as that the State was planning to defeat the LTTE in the north militarily, the Minister said the Defence Secretary who spoke in Sinhala, had been misquoted in the English media.

“I have checked this very much with the Defence Secretary himself... no where has he said (in his speech) that an offensive is being planned in the Northern part of Sri Lanka by the military.” He also affirmed that the Government was united in believing that this conflict can be won by a negotiated peace settlement and they were still having confidence on Norwegians as peace facilitators.

The Minister said they knew it was a difficult process since they were dealing with a “terrorist organisation” but at the same time the Government wanted this terrorist organisation to return to the negotiating table “as they were part and parcel of Sri Lanka.”

He also stressed that the Government did not see the entire Tamil community as the LTTE although the LTTE comes within the Tamil people.