This will be end of LTTE terrorism - President

Doha: President Mahinda Rajapaksa told Al Jazeera television in an interview that this would be the end of the LTTE terrorists’ battle for a separate State, adding that the terrorists should surrender to the military.

“LTTE cadres are willing to surrender to the Security Forces and many have done so,” President Rajapaksa told the interviewer Tony Birtley.

He said that successive Governments in Sri Lanka had tried to persuade the LTTE to negotiate a political solution and failed, and that under the circumstances, the Government could not offer anything else to the terrorist group.

When asked whether it will take time to convince people that the peace process will bear fruit following what is acknowledged by many to be an inevitable military defeat of the LTTE, the President said that within a short span of time the Government was able to change the minds of the people of the Eastern Province as the Government is familiar with their aspirations and culture. President Rajapaksa said he believes in a political solution to the national issue and was confident that this would be best addressed after defeating the terrorists militarily.

He insisted that a political solution would be the answer to address the grievances of the Tamil people, not the terrorists.

He reiterated the Government’s commitment to a political solution, but pointed out that the most important task at the moment is to defeat terrorism comprehensively.