Visiting Sri Lankan foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama was upbeat about the restoration of democracy in the eastern province.
Foreign minister claims they are confined to just two and half districts
NEW DELHI: Visiting Sri Lankan foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama was upbeat about the restoration of democracy in the eastern province and said the same experiment would eventually be replicated in the north, home of LTTE leader Prabhakaran.
Asked whether the defence forces were now within striking distance of LTTE suprmo Prabhakaran, as reports from Colombo suggested, Bogollagama said, the tigers were confined to two and a half districts of the north and the reference was to georgraphical location. He did not eleborate.
However he said the army’s progress in the northern province was encouraging and today the Tamil Tigers were in control of just Mullaitivue and Killinochi. But he refused to give a time table of how long it would take for the military to clear the northern province.
According to him the LTTE have moved out of eight districts in the north due to military pressure. He said it would perhaps take a year and a half or more, going by how long it took to clear the east. What he did not add was the fact that the eastern province has a mixed population and that the breakaway Tiger leader Karuna swithched allegiance and fought against Prabhakaran’s men. The going would be much tougher in the northern province, LTTE’s headquarters.
Perhaps aware of the criticism that president Rajapakse’s government was laying too much stress on a military solution, Bogollagama said that the final solution of the ethnic problem would have to be a political one. He hoped that once rid of LTTE control the people of the north would also embrace democracy like those their counterparts in the east.
The minister was asked about the LTTE’s ability to strike at willl. On Monday as many as 14 policemen were killed and many others injured in a suicide attack by the Tigers. He said Colombo was confident of holding the SAARC summit and provide full proof security to the South Asian leaders attending the jamboree.
g_seema@dnaindia.net
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