No foreign interference into Sri Lanka's internal affairs - FM

UDITHA Kumarasinghe and IRANGIKA Range

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told Parliament yesterday that no foreign country has posed any threat to Sri Lanka's sovereignty nor blocked the Government's moves to defeat terrorism.

"The Government will not provide any room for any such foreign interference into the internal affairs of the country," the Minister said.

He was responding to an adjournment motion moved by NFF Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa on the recent attack on the Sri Lankan Embassy in Oslo carried out by operatives of the LTTE's international terror network.

"The Government works according to its national agenda without being subject to any international pressure. We have also educated the world community and made them understand the ground realities in our country. The international community has understood how we have addressed this issue," he said.

Minister Bogollagama said the key challenge faced at present by the Government is how to get the rest of the innocent civilians who are entrapped by the LTTE terrorists. The troops have been able to conduct their rescue operations without causing any harm to the civilians. That is why a large number of civilians are fleeing from the uncleared areas to the cleared areas by placing the highest confidence in our Armed Forces. During a period of 48 hours, nearly 120,000 civilians fled to the Government controlled areas.

The Minister commenting on the attack carried out by the pro-LTTE elements on the Sri Lankan embassy in Oslo said in the immediate aftermath of this incident, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement denouncing this attack. The very next day, I summoned the Royal Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo Tore Hattrem to the Foreign Ministry and lodged a strong protest at the failure of the Norwegian authorities to take adequate security measures to prevent this premeditated and cowardly attack on our embassy.

This cowardly attack was made when President Mahinda Rajapaksa issued a directive to the Armed Forces on April 12, 2009 to restrict their operations, providing the opportunity to the civilian population held hostage in the No-Fire Zone (NFZ) by the LTTE to celebrate the Sinhala and Tamil New Year in a peaceful atmosphere and have uninhibited freedom of movement from the NFZ to the cleared areas. However, this festive goodwill gesture was marred by the premeditated attack on our mission in Norway.