For Sri Lanka, India comes first - President
President Mahinda Rajapaksa said he considers India first and others
later.“As soon as I came to power, I went to India and got their
support; after that, I did not have to bother about the UN, UK, US, and
so on. In fact, we got help from the US by way of vital information
about LTTE ships which made it possible to destroy them at sea,” he said
in an interview with Deccan Chronicle in Colombo.
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President
Mahinda Rajapaksa |
“As for China coming here with major infrastructure projects, I must
tell you that every project that we gave the Chinese we first offered to
India, including the big port project in Hambantota, but there was no
response. Even the Colombo port expansion was advertised but only the
Chinese came,” President Rajapaksa said. Asked whether the Tamil
National Alliance’s (TNA) victory at the last Parliamentary election
indicated the existence of a strong demand for autonomy in spite of the
elimination of the LTTE in view of the claims by the Jaffna Chamber of
Commerce (JCC) that the Tamil Diaspora will not invest in the country
until there is a political solution, the President said: “These
elections were held under the proportional representation system. There
was also a substantial number that voted against the TNA. You must note
that 54 percent of Tamils live outside the north and the east. The JCC
is free to have its opinion, but there are Sri Lankan Tamils abroad who
have shown interest in investing in the north.
We are keen on a sustainable political settlement. But it must have
wide acceptance, especially in the context of the post-conflict
situation.”
President Rajapaksa also said regional autonomy was a slogan used by
the terrorists and their apologists. “The need is for strong unity in
diversity, for which regional autonomy is not the only way. A better
approach would be equality of opportunity, and the spread of democratic
freedom and rights, together with speedy economic development of the
north, in tandem with other regions of the country,” he said.
The President also said the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) is a
good approach to what has been a vexed problem because in a democracy it
is Parliament that will ultimately have to agree to any solution.
“Unfortunately, the TNA has not named its representatives to the PSC.
They (TNA) have the same attitude as the LTTE. They demand impossible
things - merger of the north and the east, land policy and Police. See
what happened in your country when Rahul Gandhi was travelling in Uttar
Pradesh. Chief minister Mayawati tried to get him arrested. Do you think
I want to get arrested by these people (by giving the Tamils a police
force)?,” he asked.
“The TNA seems to be driven by the Tamil diaspora, which does not
want peace and political settlement, as they fear that their host
countries might then send them back home. The TNA cannot represent the
same separatist agenda of the LTTE, which will not find acceptance with
the majority population. I want to work towards a solution but the TNA
is not cooperating,” the President said.
Brushing aside complaints that the North remains highly militarized
and that over 100,000 troops policing about 300,000 people, the
President said:
“There are more than 300,000 Tamils in the north. The military
presence is not worked out in proportion to the population but the
security needs of the region. The presence of the military in an area
that has seen brutal armed conflict for nearly three decades does not
amount to militarisation. “The military is playing a significant role in
building infrastructure as the locals lack skills. Also, large sections
of the north are yet to be de-mined. It is not true that school
functions or library meetings and such activities require the permission
of the military. But there could be cautious surveillance, knowing the
nature of the defeated enemy. We are still getting hidden arms caches of
the LTTE. The presence of the military will be phased out in keeping
with security needs.” (Deccan Chronicle)
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