CFA termination gave broader space for political solution - FM

CANBERRA: The termination of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) in January of this year has not in anyway hampered the process of moving towards a negotiated political settlement, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said in Australia yesterday.

“In fact, it has given the Government broader space to pursue this goal through an inclusive process which includes all minority groups of Sri Lanka which had hitherto been sidelined due to the CFA, an agreement between the government and only the LTTE. The Sri Lanka Government, while dealing militarily to eliminate the scourge of terrorism from our land, will spare no effort in our bid to arrive at a practical and sustainable political settlement,” Minister Bogollagama said.

The Minister was delivering a lecture on ‘Post Conflict Development in Sri Lanka,’ at the National Press Club in Canberra.

“The principal challenges that we face in Sri Lanka today are twofold - combating terrorism on the one hand and maintaining the momentum of continued economic growth in a fiercely competitive market environment, on the other. I am happy to say that our government has acquitted itself commendably on both these fronts giving us the impetus to address issues related to post conflict development,” he told the gathering.

The Minister said the Government is firmly geared to eliminating the scourge of terrorism.

He said: “Just days ago, the LTTE carried out a suicide bomb attack in Anuradhapura, which claimed the lives of Major General Janaka Perera, former High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Australia, his wife Vajira Perera, Dr. Raja Johnpulle, a former Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Soviet Union, and his wife Dr. Jenny Johnpulle, as well as several others.

This latest attack makes it crystal clear that the LTTE is firmly and irreversibly entrenched in the path of violence and terrorism. However, the LTTE faces imminent and certain defeat at the hands of our valiant Security Forces. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has often reiterated that there are no military solutions to political problems. The Government strongly believes that any sustainable solution lies in finding political solutions to political problems.

In April 2006, President Rajapaksa constituted an All Party Representatives Committee (APRC) comprising members nominated by political parties in the Parliament, to formulate a set of proposals to bring about a durable political settlement to the ongoing conflict, acceptable to all communities in the country.

The government demonstrated its bona fides in its commitment to the peace process by accepting the interim proposals unveiled by the APRC in January of this year, which inter alia entailed the immediate implementation of the provisions of 13th Amendment to the Constitution, granting devolution to Provincial Councils in respect of legislative, executive and administrative powers.

The elections in the Eastern Province could be seen as a conspicuous milestone in the Government policy in restoring democratic rights to the people in areas which were dominated and terrorized by the LTTE. Moreover, the successful conduct of elections in the East is a clear reflection of the genuine interest of the Government to create an environment, in which all communities and ethnicities could live in harmony and achieve economic prosperity.

In an environment where terrorism is a worldwide threat, Sri Lanka has adopted a policy of empowering the people, to confront this challenge. Such an approach is vital to sustain a vibrant democracy, especially in the light of the absence of democratic rule for over two decades in the Eastern Province. The need to rid Sri Lanka of terrorism in order to sustain democratic rule must be emphasized. Countering terrorism, as is being done today in the North of Sri Lanka, would pave the way for the empowerment of the people of that region.

While the Eastern Province has been successfully cleared of the LTTE, the Sri Lanka Government is also pursuing a similar policy in the Northern Province. The Government’s sincere objective is to enable the people of the North to enjoy the benefits of the democratic process and to ensure that political freedom and the fruits of economic and social development that the people of the Eastern Province are now beginning to benefit from, can be experienced and enjoyed by the people in the North of Sri Lanka as well. And we firmly believe that such reinvigoration of the democratic process in the North and the East can lead towards a lasting political solution to issues of concern to all citizens of Sri Lanka and for securing fundamental rights and preserving and protecting the multi-religious, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural fabric of the Sri Lankan society.”