Thursday, March 24, 2005

"LTTE is not strong as they think they are" – Kadiragamar

In a polished and an unruffled performance Lakshman Kadiragamar, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, told the BBC Hard Talk interviewer, Zeinab Bedawi, yesterday that the LTTE has climbed down from its extremist demands and the stage is now almost set for a joint mechanism to advance, leading possibly even to “a platform on the big scene.” In an answer to a question, he replied that the LTTE has demanded that no reference should be made to Sri Lanka. LTTE had demanded that it should be referred to as the “island of Sri Lanka” indicating their unwillingness to recognize the state of Sri Lanka.
The LTTE has also insisted that the Treasury be referred to as the “custodian”. It has even demanded a 200 mile economic zone. But the LTTE has come down from these extremist positions, said Kadiragamar. He added that Jan Petersen, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, had rung President Chandrika Kumaratunga, and told her that the LTTE is now ready to accept a formula for a joint mechanism for the distribution of aid which may lead to broader cooperation in peace negotiations.
Kadiragamar suggested that the LTTE seems to be prepared for a negotiated settlement and added that the “LTTE is not strong as they think they are. ”,br> When Bedawi repeated the LTTE accusation that the Sri Lankan Forces were helping Col. Kauna’s forces Kadiragamar denied it categorically. He said that the President has given strict orders to the High Command that no assistance should be given to anyone to start fighting with the LTTE.
When she pressed the point again Kadirgamar pointed out that Col. Karuna was his “best battle commander” and he should be able to look after himself. She came back again citing Jehan Perera as an independent NGO who had asked the government to come clean on this issue of Col Karuna, Kadiragamar scoffed at the idea of Jehan Perera being an “independent” person and asked her to put that word in inverted commas. Bedawi, who is normally very combative, laughed.
Kadiragamar also dismissed accusations made by the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) of not delivering aid to the north and the east as sheer propaganda.He said that privately the LTTE has told the government that they are happy with the flow of aid. But publicly they attack the government to raise funds for purchasing arms.
He categorized the TRO as the “alter ego” of the LTTE carrying out mischievous propaganda to raise funds for the LTTE. In particular, he questioned as to where the funds of the TRO were going.
He emphasized that there was no starvation, no malnutrition and that daily the government was spending out of Treasury funds the equivalent of one million sterling pounds in delivering food to 500,000.When Bedawi said that NGOs had increased from around 400 to 6,000 after the tsunami and quoted an NGO official saying that relief aid had not been distributed equitably Kadirgamra cut in and said “NGOs with some dubious credentials have descended” on a large scale in the tsunami affected areas. He said that this particular NGO leveling the accusation was making a bland statement without substantiating his case.
In any case, it was not possible within three months for any institution of government to solve all the problems. Emphasizing the magnitude of the problem of delivering aid he revealed that he had met leading humanitarian organizations like Red Cross, Oxfam in London and they had told him that they cannot start work in the tsunami affected areas till May.He, in fact, had asked these NGOs to enter into partnership with the government in providing relief aid and in the reconstruction work. He added that all the dignitaries who had visited the tsunami affected areas, from President Clinton and Bush and Prince Charles, have been full of praise for the manner in which the government was handling the crisis.
He stressed that shelter, housing, food; medicine and other basic requirement have been met.The task now is to get into the next stage of reconstruction and rehabilitation. He also highlighted the fact that though pledges has been made in huge amounts by foreign donors not one penny have reached Sri Lanka.
When Bedawi asked why Kofi Annan was not allowed to visit Prabhakaran in Vanni which would have been a confidence-building measure Kadiragamar rejected it outright as a measure that was designed to boost their claim for a separate state rather than a confidence-building measure. Then she came back saying that the LTTE has given up their claim for a separate state – a claim which was dismissed summarily by Kadirgamar who replied that he has yet to see “irrefutable evidence of that”. He said that US has told the LTTE to give up the idea of a separate state and renounce violence.
But the LTTE has yet to comply with non-violent politics.In fact, the LTTE signed an international document in December 2002 agreeing to work for peace within a federal framework but to date LTTE has shown no interest. Bedawi also questioned him on the relationship with the JVP.
She said that the JVP was not willing to make concessions on a joint mechanism and that Somawansa Amarasinghe had said that they would quit the government if any concessions were made. Kadirgamar replied that the JVP has given him a personal undertaking that they are not interested in breaking away from the government.
He said that the JVP is for a negotiated settlement and that they are for peace. They are only against the extremist demands of the LTTE.The interview ended with Bedawi asking Kadiragamar how he, as an ethnic Tamils, faced the charges of being a traitor to the Tamils.
Without batting an eyelid he replied that if by “traitor” the LTTE means that he was not prepared to toe the LTTE line of violating human rights, abducting school children, eliminating dissident Tamils and resorting to violence he was quite happy to be in that category.

posted by Asian Guardian at 5:03 PM | 0 comments