No military solution, but no bowing down to terrorism

President Mahinda Rajapaksa said his Government did not believe in a military solution to the country’s problem but said the Government was not prepared, at any cost, to bow down to terrorism. Addressing the annual sessions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva. Switzerland, President Rajapaksa also said his Government regretted very much if any inconvenience was caused to innocent persons due to the move to evict them from the lodges in Colombo.

“One of the biggest challenges confronting our carefully developed social institutions is the threat of terrorism. A ruthless terrorist group, the LTTE, continues to challenge us, determined to force us to compromise on the standards that we have developed over the years,” the President said.

However he said that in a democracy like Sri Lanka, where political views can be expressed freely, political objectives must be realized through negotiation and dialogue and through compromise. There can be no room for extremism, and even less for violence. The President also referred to his Government as a multi-ethnic government encompassing a coalition of 13 democratic political parties most of which opposed him at the Presidential election.

“We are a multi-ethnic government. Such a Government cannot and will not discriminate against any minority groups,” he said. President Rajapaksa said that today there was a misunderstanding and false propaganda that his Government was involved in ethnic cleansing which he said was absolutely false.

“I must remind this august assembly that it is the LTTE which resorted to heavy ethnic cleansing from the early nineteen eighties. The LTTE evicted all the Muslims and the Sinhalese from the North,” he said. The President also praised the Sri Lankan armed forces and Police saying that they are among the most disciplined in the world and have great respect for human rights.

“Any lapses on their part will be promptly investigated and corrective action taken. But I am sad to say that there has been so much of false propaganda against the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Police that is being taken so seriously by the rest of the world,” he said.

Referring to the move to evict Tamil civilians from lodges recently, the President explained that on an average 20,000 persons occupy these lodges and only 302 persons were the subject of this evacuation and added that many left voluntarily.
“Almost all suicide bombers have operated from these lodging houses, and therefore, we have had to keep an extra vigil over them,” he said.

The President also mentioned the steps the Government had taken to deal with the concerns expressed regarding human rights. “A Presidential Commission of Inquiry has been set up to investigate into some of the killings that had happened in the past. Its work is being observed by an International Independent Group of Eminent Persons. All the observers came on our invitation as we wanted to establish the truth,” he said adding the Government was open to scrutiny because it respected human rights, democracy and the freedom of the people.

He said that it was the Government’s commitment to the political process that led to the creation of the All Party Conference, to formulate political proposals, to ensure political reform and through that address the grievances of the minorities.

The President also gave a brief outline of the SLFP proposals to the delegates and said that the final outcome of the discussions at the APC should be a set of reform proposals through consensus among the members of the Conference.