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The Government is prepared to renew the Ceasefire Agreement
at any time, but Prabhakaran does not honour it, said
President Mahinda Rajapaksa in an interview with Al
Jazeera’s 101 East presenter Teymoor Nabili. “We
still honour it. We still do not send our police, our
army to that side,’ the President added.
The President
also told Al Jazeera, “Even today I am ready to
negotiate, very clearly. My argument is that terrorism
has to be got rid off. We cannot kneel down to that.
I am not prepared to kneel down to their arms capability.
But I am committed to ensuring the rights of the Tamil
people. That I will achieve, somehow.”
The
following is the full transcript of the interview:
Teymoor Nabili:
Mr. President, the Tamil Tigers launched their first
attack against your government and against the Sri Lankan
people only weeks after you came to power. Why do you
think it was, that after so long of adhering to the
peace plan, they suddenly decided to start attacking
again?
President
Mahinda Rajapaksa: They would have thought it was a
weakness of mine, that I could be defeated. That was
a good opportunity for them to establish a separate
state. They would have believed that.
Is it possible
that for Prabhakaran, war or continuing conflict is
actually a preferred option because only by convincing
the northern population that they were under attack
can he convince them to support his movement. If there
were no attacks from the government the population would
lose the need for his command?
Like
I said before, he thought that we were weak, that the
state is weak, that he is strong. But now, he has come
to a point, where he has accepted that. He has lost
the east. Prabhakaran does not represent the aspirations
of the Tamil people. What he represents, is the interests
of a small group, not the needs of the Tamil people.
The Tamil people do not want a war, they want peace.
The government does not need a war, the government wants
peace.
Is there
any level of dialogue at all between your government
and the LTTE right now?
Actually,
at present there are no talks at any level. As a government
we cannot have talks. We say that we are ready for talks
always.
You don’t
see any value in dialogue?
We
are always ready for talks. Always, even today. Even
while the fighting goes on, I am ready for talks. Even
being armed, the way they are behaving today, we are
ready to go forward.
When you
say you are prepared to talk, you are prepared to instigate,
to initiate dialogue?
Definitely,
if the LTTE is ready. [It takes] two hands to clap.
Have you
made the offer?
I
am ready if Prabhakaran is ready. We have said that
very clearly. I am ready, but I am not prepared to kneel
before the terrorism of the LTTE. I have said that many
times. If I am attacked, I will counter attack. That
is what we have done at every occasion.
We have
then, a face-off. How does one get around what seems
to be an intractable problem?
Actually
in this instance, and at every other instance we have
said, come and commence talks with us, we are ready.
We have offered a political solution to the people.
Along with the political solution, we are prepared to
talk. But what the LTTE wants, to keep their arms and
divide the country into two. That I cannot allow.
Do you think
the Sri Lankan people would rather see a victory against
the Tamil Tigers or a peace agreement with the Tamil
Tigers?
The
people have been battered by the LTTE for many years.
It has come to a point where the LTTE cannot be trusted.
If the people are asked, they will say, defeat the LTTE
and talk. But I am ready to talk with the LTTE. From
the other side, this question is a question not faced
in any other country. Where a head of state asks Prabhakaran
to talk.
So you are
saying that you think the Sri Lankan people would prefer
a defeat of the LTTE first?
First.
Opinion polls seem to suggest that peace is much more
important to the Sri Lankan people. For the people,
LTTE, peace - the people want peace that is the truth,
without defeating the LTTE, without defeating the terrorism
of the LTTE. There is no politics in this. There is
a political side and terrorism here. This is a terrorist
group. The people are aware that as long as a terrorist
organization exists, that negotiations will not be successful.
They are making use of the negotiations to strengthen
themselves, to bring in arms. This is a historical fact,
historically because the people have been battered.
Today we have to be very careful.
So let me
be clear on this: what you’re saying is that there
must first be military victory and then peace talks?
No.
That is not what I hope for. Until the terrorists are
weakened, they will not come for talks. As long as they
think they are strong, they will try to break up the
country. Today, what we hope is to fulfill the aspirations
of the Tamil people.
What do
you mean by weakened? At what point will you accept
that the Tamil Tigers are weakened because it’s
now been almost a year of …
Even
under today’s circumstances. Clearly said, what
the people expect. But what I expect is not that. I
said that even today I am ready to negotiate, very clearly.
My argument is that terrorism has to be got rid off.
We cannot kneel down to that. I am not prepared to kneel
down to their arms capability. But I am committed to
ensuring the rights of the Tamil people. That I will
achieve, somehow.
I apologise,
I am not really following you. You say that terrorism
must be defeated but you don’t want, you don’t
think that a military victory is necessary?
Absolutely,
a victory is essential against terrorism. That is a
different story. But because we need to meet the aspirations
of the Tamil people, I am prepared to go for talks,
with the terrorists. I have come to that point. Has
any other world leader said that?
Could you
then describe a situation under which both those things
can be achieved – defeat of the terrorists and
representation of the Tamil people? What I am struggling
to understand here is if the defeat of terrorism is
a key element of your strategy and yet dialogue is also
a key element of your strategy. How do you see those
two working together? Which comes first and how do you
proceed?
Now,
we tried to talk at the beginning. While keeping their
arms, we were prepared to talk. When we went to Geneva
; they killed innocent people. Even while they were
killing, I negotiated. I think, if you were to compare
with other countries, you will see a difference. In
other countries there will be no negotiations. But,
we have been prepared, we have negotiated, we have shown
that we are genuinely ready to do that. But they must
give up terrorism. They must enter a democratic framework.
Without that, that is what we expect to achieve through
negotiations. It was clear during our negotiations with
them, that they have no interest in negotiating because
they believe they can win this war, that they can divide
this country into two. That is their strong belief,
Prabhakaran’s belief.
The message
I am hearing from you right now is that your military
strategy is going to continue until the Tigers come
to the table and ask for negotiations and lay down their
arms.
No.
I am ready to talk even while they carry arms. Even
while they fight, if they want to negotiate with me,
and reach a solution, I am ready for that too.
Let me rephrase
then. What you are saying is that the government’s
military strategy will continue as is, until you get
a signal from Prabhakaran that he is willing to talk
and he is willing to stop his military action first?
If
they do not attack me, I will not attack. If they stay
where they are, keeping their arms, I have no problem
with that. But, they must agree to a political solution.
To achieve the aspirations of the Tamil people, and
to achieve the aspirations of the people of this country,
I am prepared. Because I will not divide people as Tamils,
Muslims or Sinhalese.
Let’s
assume that Prabhakaran is committed to a military victory
against the government. Is it your belief that the government
can defeat the Tigers militarily if it comes to the
necessity?
Actually,
the government has the capability to defeat them. The
government is strong. Defeating terrorism is not only
for the Sri Lankan government. To protect democracy,
the whole world must act to defeat terrorism
But we’ve
had a year now of the government putting an all-out
effort to counter the Tamil Tiger terrorism and in that
time there has not only been no progress made, we now
see they have an air force.
I
must say this very clearly. We have cleared the east
from terrorism. Today, they have been limited to Killinochchi
and Mullaitivu areas. We have weakened them. They receive
help from the European and other countries, they get
strong. As long as they get this protection money they
will carry this out as a business. We must keep that
in mind.
Do you think
Prabhakaran should admit finally that the ceasefire
agreement is dead?
Prabhakaran
is breaking it all the time. Prabhakaran is not talking
about a ceasefire agreement. When it’s needed,
he talks about it to the international community. Prabhakaran
has completely forgotten about it, and is carrying out
his terrorist activities.
As far as
you are concerned it’s no more than a piece of
paper now?
Even
though I dislike saying it, the agreement has fallen
to that state. This agreement is between us. We are
prepared to renew the agreement at any time. But Prabhakaran
does not honour that. We still honour it. We still do
not send our police, our army to that side.
Richard
Boucher visited Sri Lanka recently and he said there
are two aspects that concern us, abductions and killings
and the freedom of the press. Other human rights organizations
have also levelled criticisms at the forces, armed forces.
Actually,
today I am not prepared to accept that there are human
rights violations as has been reported. When such accusations
are made, I, the forces, the police …
Are you
willing to accept that there are violations of human
rights occurring?
Knowingly,
a state will not violate human rights, abduct people.
That must be stated very clearly. Our forces are a very
disciplined force. Not seen in any other country. Not
a single civilian was injured when we took Vakarai.
We know that in certain instances when bombs are dropped
in other countries, people are killed, children die.
We do not behave like that. We did not do that. We protected
every civilian.
But Human
Rights Watch has documented at least 700 and more abductions
during your term.
Many
of those people who are said to have been abducted are
in England , Germany , gone abroad. They have made complaints
that they were abducted, but when they return they don’t
say. Some talk of a few people abducted from Colombo
. We do not know whether they are fighting in Killinochchi,
we have no way of finding out. This is all against the
government. We have seen this business. We have found
out that under the same name, they have gone abroad.
In these lists we have seen.
So this
is a conspiracy?
Definitely,
I don’t refute the fact that the LTTE is abducting
people. The LTTE has abducted people and killed them.
The state forces do not have to abduct people, because
we have a law. We can question them, and remand them,
imprison them. We can detain them under emergency laws.
So there is no need to abduct someone, for the state.
If we receive evidence about any incidents, I have appointed
a commission to take action against such people. International
observers have been brought in. That is what a state
can do. If there are killings, we have a police, a law
to stop that. For this too, we have a law and a commission.
Let’s
move away from abductions, you said after your victory
that your aim is to bring about an honourable peace.
This has been a long-running problem. How long do you
think it can continue to go on before something very
serious occurs within the Sri Lankan society itself?
I
would like to solve this problem today. This has gone
on too far. We need to solve this as quickly as possible.
That is why we are working very hard.
How do you
propose to do that?
We
have to discuss it, then we have to bring it before
the people and we also have to eradicate terrorism.
We cannot allow these criminals to dictate to us. We
cannot have them join us. While we go ahead with our
programme to control these people we will bring forward
a solution. This way the people will be with us. If
you ask the people whether they want LTTE rule, they
will say they don’t want it. You go there and
ask them. But the problem is that if they say they are
opposed to the LTTE, they will be killed.
The ambassador
designate to the EU from Sri Lanka has been speaking
about his concerns with the situation; that perhaps
Europe, and maybe even a Democratic US President after
the next election, may begin to support either a humanitarian
intervention in Sri Lanka, or a perhaps a slightly stronger
intervention in Sri Lanka. Perhaps even ultimately a
Bosnia-style solution. Is that a fear that you have?
I
believe in this country, for the problem of this country,
another country cannot force a solution. To find a solution
for this country, it is not Europe that can help. It
is India that can find a solution. India is our neighbour.
It is essential for the people of India . Therefore
I believe, that it is the Indian government that can
help us with this question.
But what
would you like India to do today?
To
offer a solution to this problem, according to the present
situation, to help the Tamil people, India ’s
support is necessary. India must work with this government.
It has worked, and my belief is that there must be more
support from the Indian government. Sri Lanka is not
a colony of England, America or any other country. Sri
Lanka is a sovereign state. So when they get involved
it is important that they do not interfere in the internal
affairs of this country.
Mr. President
thank you very much for talking to Al Jazeera.
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