Tamils not loyal to LTTE -President
As the battle for Kilinochchi enters a decisive phase, President
Mahinda Rajapaksa has urged politicians concerned over the safety of
Tamil civilians to “coax the LTTE to allow the civilians to move towards
the safe corridor”.
In an interview to the New Indian Express, he said that the LTTE “is
preventing civilians from moving to safer areas.”
Terming the expected fall of Kilinochchi in the near future not as a
“military victory” but as the “beginning of the restorations of
democratic freedoms”, the President dismissed the need to wean away
people from the LTTE.
“There is error in thinking that there is need to wean the people
away from the LTTE. There is nothing to show that they are fully
committed to the LTTE or nurtured by it,” President Rajapaksa said. He
was willing to concede though a “small misled minority... may be still
with it.” He said: “We know that the Tamil people left in Kilinochchi
and Mullaitivu are held there in the thrall of LTTE’s arms.”
Once that power is broken, he said, the Tamil people will be free to
join the democratic system. “We will be looking towards a new Spring of
Development in and for the North” he said.
The President said his country took a “serious note” of the fact that
an average of 500 Indian fishing vessels enter Sri Lankan waters daily.
Declaring that “the movement of smugglers” was a threat to the
country’s “sovereignty and security”, the President pointed to a “nexus
between smugglers and the LTTE and perhaps even other terrorist
organisations.”
On whether the arrangement with Member of Parliament V. Muralitheran
and Eastern Provincial Council Chief Minister S. Chandrakanthan (both
defected from the LTTE) is working out, the President said differences
of opinion were common in democracy and that he hoped the two “would
sort out differences in the larger interests of the people they
represent.” |