As the battle for Kilinochchi enters a decisive phase, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has urged politicians concerned over the safety of Tamil civilians to "coax the LTTE to allow the civilians to move towards the safe corridor".
In an interview to the New Indian Express, he said that the LTTE "is preventing civilians from moving to safer areas."
Terming the expected fall of Kilinochchi in the near future not as a "military victory" but as the "beginning of the restorations of democratic freedoms", the President dismissed the need to wean away people from the LTTE.
"There is error in thinking that there is need to wean the people away from the LTTE. There is nothing to show that they are fully committed to the LTTE or nurtured by it," President Rajapaksa said. He was willing to concede though a "small misled minority... may be still with it." He said: "We know that the Tamil people left in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu are held there in the thrall of LTTE's arms."
Once that power is broken, he said, the Tamil people will be free to join the democratic system. "We will be looking towards a new Spring of Development in and for the North" he said.
The President said his country took a "serious note" of the fact that an average of 500 Indian fishing vessels enter Sri Lankan waters daily.
Declaring that "the movement of smugglers" was a threat to the country's "sovereignty and security", the President pointed to a "nexus between smugglers and the LTTE and perhaps even other terrorist organisations."
On whether the arrangement with Member of Parliament V. Muralitheran and Eastern Provincial Council Chief Minister S. Chandrakanthan (both defected from the LTTE) is working out, the President said differences of opinion were common in democracy and that he hoped the two "would sort out differences in the larger interests of the people they represent."
Courtesy : Daily News
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