Ending terrorism, winning peace
Foreign Ministry Secretary,
Dr. Palitha Kohona |
The speech
delivered by Foreign Affairs Ministry Secretary,
Dr. Palitha T.B. Kohona at the Annual General Meeting of Forum
of Chartered Institutes, Galle Face Hotel, Colombo
on July 1, 2009. |
After 27 years of blood, carnage and frequent disappointment, it was
an unparalleled achievement. We did it convincingly and we did it
substantially on our own, carefully and deliberately brushing aside the
cards stacked against us. We may have ignored the script, but the finale
was overwhelmingly convincing.
A thousand years from now, bards will sing the praises of those whose
valour and dedication made it possible. Our victory has generated much
confidence in the country, as was demonstrated by the jubilation that
swept the Nation following the silencing of the guns, and the outpouring
of support for the Government.
The Government has continued to enlarge its support base, winning a
series of Provincial Council elections emphatically. There is very
little doubt that the vast majority of the people this country are
behind the Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Sustainable peace
This political confidence must be converted into sustainable peace
and economic activity. Our success has also aroused significant
admiration around the world which, properly managed, would produce
tangible benefits and even some resentment. Terrorist groups remain a
threat elsewhere despite the deployment of much more sophisticated
forces, advanced equipment and substantially more resources.
Our next challenge is to consolidate the peace and ensure security
and prosperity for all our citizens, from the Dondra Head to
Kankesanthurai. And this will be as daunting and complicated a task as
winning the war and will require a range of different approaches.
Success should not be permitted to lead to over-confidence or
complacency.
Nothing worthwhile was ever easy to achieve. We will need to restore
universal confidence in the country, among all our citizens, win over
those who may entertain reservations that Sri Lanka won, convince all
that our victory will benefit our people without distinction, care for
the thousands who were displaced and return them to their own homes,
generate investment capital, and establish an environment, socially,
economically and politically, where every individual’s dignity is
respected and their true potential can be realized in full.
For over 27 years due to a conflict which was not of our own making,
our resources remained under utilized, were diverted to the war effort,
sometimes haphazardly, enterprises struggled to survive, tourism and
inward investment suffered seriously, the cream of our youth went
gallantly and voluntarily to the front and many paid with their lives,
others were maimed, while quite a few took the easy way out and left the
country, and a country that was meant to be a beacon to the region,
stagnated in the global backwater.
Now that the conflict is over and the guns are silenced we have the
opportunity stand up, dust ourselves, and rejoin the world as a proud
and confident people.
We have a unique opportunity created for us to catch up for the lost
time and we must start immediately. Peace must be made a reality to all
our people and not continue to be only an aspiration for some.
The immediate need is to care for those who became the involuntary
victims of the conflict. It is now history that the LTTE, as it fled
from one town to another and from one village to another, swept with it
the civilian population and callously herded them in to an ever
decreasing area and cynically used them, the very people it purported to
champion, as a human shield while exposing them to the ravages of
battle.
Dreadful game
They were the involuntary victims of a terrorist group’s deadly
strategy. The LTTE knew that these innocent civilians would suffer
terribly by being forced to partake in this dreadful game. But they
callously persisted.
The vast majority of these civilians clearly had no desire to be part
of the LTTE game plan and as soon as the Security Forces broke through
the terrorist defences in April and May 2009, fled in to Government
controlled areas carrying whatever they could gather. We saw this
phenomenon unfolding on our TV screens. These were not scores of
reluctant escapees.
They were making a desperate dash away from their ruthless captors,
on occasion, being subjected to gunfire from them. The Security Forces,
demonstrating the impact of their training and planning, exercised
amazing restraint as they advanced, at great cost to themselves.
Education is priority to bring peace . File photo |
We saw soldiers dropping their guns to assist civilians across
flooded lagoons. Many a child lost its soldier father and a young wife
her husband because of this policy of trying to avoid civilian
casualties.
Of course, as a consequence, the much anticipated “blood bath” or the
“humanitarian catastrophe” failed to materialize. Today, over 280,000 of
these compatriots of ours, are sheltering in camps in Vavuniya.
First priority
While the large number of persons who fled the unwelcome embrace of
the LTTE, has stretched the resources of the Government, what the
Government achieved in the first two or three weeks is phenomenal.
Efforts are continuing to be made to improve the conditions in the
camps.
This is our first priority. The Government has provided temporary
shelters which are more like small rural swellings, including by
obtaining 6,500 large tents from China.
The shelters provided by international agencies could be improved
considerably. The material used in them may not suit our climate and
they create other problems as the former Chief Justice highlighted.
While it is agreed that these shelters should not become permanent
dwellings, every effort should be made to make the temporary stay of the
displaced as comfortable as possible.
We have succeeded in avoiding the familiar images from refugee camps
elsewhere of forlorn children with sunken eyes - waiting for a passing
relief truck to throw out food. We would encourage international
agencies and non Governmental agencies to take cognisance of these
sentiments and respond to these needs.
The water supply to these camps remains inadequate. However, in the
first camp site established by the Government, wells have been
constructed to extract ground water. Sanitation facilities and waste
disposal remains a problem. Providing such facilities in such a short
period to 287,000 persons was never considered to be easy. In all these,
there are vast opportunities for the private sector to get involved.
We are aware that some private sector entities are participating in
the relief effort. While thanking them for their contribution, I would
encourage the others also to join in. This is the time for you to be
counted as we try hard to make these internally displaced comfortable in
their temporary dwellings.
The major camp has a school. This is symbolic of the Government’s
plans for the future. While it may lack many of the facilities of a
normal school, it is testimony to the Government’s commitment to
ensuring a degree of normalcy to the occupants of the camps until they
return to their own homes.
The children who for months had been herded from one LTTE defence
line to another or dragged out into jungle training camps to achieve the
deluded goals of a sick mind, now have the opportunity to do what other
children do - study.
To anyone who visits this school, the enthusiasm of these children
and their teachers is palpable. It is the Government’s wish that they
return to their own schools as soon as possible. Unlike many of their
colleagues who were thrown up as cannon fodder and their young lives
vainly sacrificed to satisfy a megalomaniac’s delusional dream, it is
everyone’s hope that these children will grow up to be useful citizens
and achieve their dreams in their own way.
We also can make a contribution to this process by assisting with the
needs of these schools and the children and also in the reconstruction
of the schools in the North. For too long have the children of the North
been regarded as a dispensable asset in a terrible war machine.
The number of teenage girls who have become pregnant simply to avoid
being sent for military training, bear testimony to the evil nature of
the regime that existed. We can ensure that at least the next generation
gets the opportunities that were denied to the present. The possibility
of assisting these children in advancing their studies deserves our
attention. Some may need financial assistance.
Providing facilities
The camps also provide banking and postal facilities. In a welcome
development, the banks received close to Rs 400 million in deposits in
the space of two days earlier last month. On the one hand, this clearly
demonstrates that many in the camps had significant financial resources
and that all were not uniformly destitute. Obviously, some carefully
carried their money with them, managed to keep it away from the LTTE.
This is in stark contrast to the IDPs who have poured in to camps
elsewhere in the world. On the other, it also indicated that these
people have confidence in the banking system headquartered in Colombo.
This is a confidence that needs to be nurtured further. It is also no
secret that some residents of the camps receive sizable remittances from
overseas, from family members and friends. Continuing financial support
from relatives living abroad will assist significantly in restoring
normalcy to the communities in the North in the shortest possible time
as these people return to their homes.
Those who either voluntarily, or through coercion, made monthly
contributions to the LTTE, should now consider helping a close relative
or a family friend through a similar contribution.
The business activities, the agriculture, the services, the continued
education of children, will require large infusions of funds. There will
be innumerable opportunities for the private sector also to engage
itself also in these activities. Sri Lankan companies established
overseas, may also wish to explore the opportunities opening up in the
East and the North.
Within the next six months, consistent with the Government’s 180-Day
Action Plan, the bulk of the residents of the welfare villages will
return to their own homes, their villages and their towns.
The transition camp must remain a transition camp. It is the hope of
the Government that these 280,000 people will return home, not with the
hatred kindled in their hearts by 27 years of LTTE indoctrination, but
with the hope of a better life in front of them and the possibilities of
being shareholders of a uniformly prosperous Sri Lanka.
They must return to better homes with electricity and water and not
to a marginal and fearful existence to which they were condemned by the
LTTE commissars. We have seen the footage coming from the battlefront of
endless fortification and extensive bunkers in LTTE areas constructed
with steel and concrete and very little construction to benefit the
civilian population.
The children of the returning IDPs must have better schools to go to
without the fear of being dragged in to jungle training camps. They must
have better hospitals, and not only for the chosen few, but for all.
They must return to an environment where democracy prevails, where
people elect their own representatives to govern them and where no
legacy of an all powerful and eternal ‘supremo’ remains.
What is taken for granted elsewhere in Sri Lanka by way of democratic
governance must be theirs to demand. We must not ever again permit a
situation where freely elected representatives of the Tamil people were
murdered by the dozen simply for not toeing the LTTE line, where dissent
was suppressed and non-conformist views were buried with those who held
them. The long line of Tamils who dissented, starting with Mayor of
Jaffna Alfred Duraiappa, were eliminated by the LTTE.
All in all, they must return to a better life and it is our
responsibility to ensure that. If what is happening in the East is
something to go by, then we can have confidence in the future. First and
foremost, the mighty LTTE tax collector’s visits have stopped and
businesses are happy. Roads are being widened, electricity is being
re-connected.
Shop fronts are being spruced up, new restaurants and hotels are
being opened up and economic activity is resuming. We all have a role to
play, however small, in achieving the national goal. Every effort must
be made to reintegrate our fellow citizens with the rest of the country.
The same comfort level enjoyed by the 54 percent of Tamils who live
in the South must also be available to all those displaced, as they
return to their homes. The country has lost 27 years due to errors made
in the past. We must run faster to make up for this lost time. We owe it
to the next generation.
Restoring confidence
As we restore the confidence of the displaced, we will also need to
reach out to the Tamil community scattered around the world. Many of
those now in the camps have relatives elsewhere in the world. Relatives
who may have worries about their well-being. There are many who have
been fed a constant diet of anti-Sinhala propaganda by the LTTE and by a
willing media ever searching for cheap headlines.
Journalists who sacrifice their principles and impartiality to
advance personal agendas, even those who may not have experienced the
horrors of 1983 may have lived a life filled with such propaganda. One
of our key challenges will be to reassure the Sri Lankan Tamil community
overseas that today’s Sri Lanka will not tolerate anything like 1983
again. It is a fact, despite the LTTE’s repeated bloody provocations,
like the attacks on the Temple of the Tooth and the Sri Maha Bodhi, or
the massacres like at the Kaththankudy Mosque, there were no reprisals
aimed at Tamil citizens elsewhere in the country.
The civilian reprisals so desperately sought by the LTTE as part of
its devilish strategy, did not eventuate. I am confident enough to say
that there will be no repetition of that infamous event ever again.
Minorities have continued to prosper in Sinhala-dominated areas of the
country, including Colombo.
Some of the leading business housed in Colombo are minority owned.
Many of the leading professionals in Colombo come from the minority
communities.
Around 54 percent of Tamils live in the South among the Sinhalese.
The inconveniences currently faced by those with no familiarity with
Sinhala or English will disappear in time with the implementation of the
Official Languages Policy.
What the Government is doing in this area has not been acknowledged.
Even the nuisance of road blocks and sudden searches will become a thing
of the past with the all pervading fear generated by LTTE suicide
bombers diminishing and a greater level of confidence being restored,
especially to the hard working Security Forces.
In the East, a former child soldier has been elected as the Chief
Minister. Elections will be held in Jaffna and Vavuniya in the coming
weeks. But if we leave these things to happen on their own it will take
time.
It is our responsibility, your responsibility, to contribute
proactively to the consolidation of that confidence. If we do not
consciously work towards establishing that higher level of confidence,
it is your businesses that will not achieve the maximum benefit from the
new environment.
It is for us to proactively grab this unique opportunity and not let
it slip by. President Rajapaksa has repeatedly invited Sri Lankan Tamils
around the world to return to their homeland and become parties to the
nation building effort. It goes without saying that in addition to the
Government, we must all contribute our voices to ensuring a confident
ring to our message.
The Government is also determined to reach out to all our friends and
even critics as we set about the task of nation building.
We have proactively reached out to diaspora groups. We will need the
continued support of our friends. We will make every effort to convince
our critics that our friendship is not fickle. Our friendship is firm
and our attitudes will be conditioned by national interest and
principle. In a fast changing world we will not establish friendships of
convenience.
We are at a critical juncture in our history. We have the unique
opportunity to bring our people together and make this blessed island a
better place for all. As the Bard said, time and tide waits for no man.
We must grab this chance and ride the tide as it rushes in. |