We have nothing to hide – President
July 12, 2010 11:07 am
In an exclusive interview in his
He said that he would like the world to perceive
So how did President Rajapaksa do it?
His formula for success may sound like common sense rather than a secret—treat
the military well, don’t allow foreign forces to fight local battles, win the
support of the people, and most important of all, be decisive.
More than a year after the government defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009, businessmen and others in
“Our nation is on the path of rapid growth,” Dr. Anura Ekanayake, chairman of
the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, said on July 5. He spoke at the recently
concluded Conference of the Asia Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Sri Lanka
Economic Summit in
First, try peace
When Rajapaksa was first elected president in 2005,
The Tigers were branded as a terrorist organization by 32 countries, including
Rajapaksa’s successful military campaign against the Tigers did not begin with
an offensive, however.
He tried but failed three times to bring the Tigers to the negotiating table,
even declaring that he was willing “to walk the extra mile” to talk peace in
their controlled territory, the President said.
But in mid-2006, when the Tigers closed the sluice gates at a reservoir in
eastern
After successfully entering the rebel-held area in the east, the soldiers held
their ground despite retaliatory attacks by the Tigers. From there, the
military continued its campaign.
The people in the strife-torn areas were “starved” for development, which could
not take hold because there was no peace, President Rajapaksa said. In fact,
the locals themselves wanted government troops to remain in the rebel-held
territories because they feared the Tigers, he added.
“People were suffering,” he said. “There was no development at all.”
His government eventually withdrew from the negotiating table in 2008, much to
the dismay of donor countries, including the
“One thing is certain,” he told The Times. “There are people you can negotiate
and get nowhere.”
Treat the military well
When Rajapaksa came to power, it was apparent that
“The morale of the [armed] forces was weak,” the president said of the military
then.
Many soldiers did not have weapons, and those that did had no bullets. Many
also did not even have combat boots, he added.
He appointed his brother—retired Army Lt. Col. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa—as Defense
secretary. The brother remains in that post today and is among those credited
with the
Not only did government properly arm and take care of the soldiers, President
Rajapaksa said that they also took care of the families of those killed in
action, even giving them the slain soldiers’ salaries.
He was also particularly proud of
Initially, the government also had problems recruiting soldiers, but the
president said that when he allowed one of his sons to join the Navy, all of a
sudden other
Fight your own battles
President Rajapaksa said that he also took lessons from the history of
The president said that he was particular about using Sri Lankan troops in the
campaign against terrorists.
The country, meanwhile, received humanitarian assistance from abroad and bought
weapons from foreign countries, including
Using local state forces gave government a psychological advantage, the
president explained. If they had allowed foreign soldiers to fight in
“That feeling is there,” he said. “It happened in
“They are our people, the terrorists,” Rajapaksa added. “They are not
outsiders. We don’t want to kill all these people. You can’t. What you want to
do is change them.”
And as the fighting went on, the government conducted a propaganda program.
President Rajapaksa said that they air-dropped leaflets that contained messages
urging the rebels to lay down their arms, and they even distributed small
radios so that people and the terrorists could tap into government broadcasts.
He added that as soon as the government had controlled the eastern part of
Also, the president said that they launched on a massive development program,
building infrastructure.
This was conducted as the military campaign shifted to the rebel-controlled
north. When people in the north saw what the government was doing in the east,
the troops had an easier time winning over the locals there.
Alleged rights abuses
As in any conflict, the fight against terrorism in
Recently, the European Union had pressed Rajapaksa’s government to address
allegations of human rights violations. And on July 16, United Nations (un)
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon created an expert panel to investigate the
alleged abuses.
The following day, Sri Lankans led by a government minister protested in front
of the UN office in
Also on Tuesday, President Rajapaksa told The Times, “I’m not worried because
we have nothing to hide. I have nothing to hide.”
“We know our Army when they fought,” he added. “They fought, on one hand they
had the gun. The other hand, they had the Human Rights Charter.”
He stressed that the military was instructed not to harm civilians, but the
problem was that it was not always easy to identify terrorists, who mixed in
with civilians and posed as noncombatants.
Fonseka, who was the Army commander in the campaign against the Tigers, lost in
the recently concluded elections against Rajapaksa, who won nearly 58 percent
of the votes.
The general had a falling out with the president and had filed an election
protest charging that Rajapaksa had cheated.
Fonseka is awaiting trial for allegedly organizing a coup. Government
officials, who refused to be named, told The Times that they were also looking
at alleged anomalies regarding arms sales to the Sri Lankan military during Fonseka’s
tenure.
Reconstruction, rehabilitation
Meanwhile, President Rajapaksa said only the military campaign was finished and
the work to address the root cause of their 30-year problem was still ongoing.
“Without peace there is no development. And without development there is no
peace,” he said.
Earlier, he created the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, an
eight-member panel that includes two Tamils.
The president said that he formed the commission to “heal the wounds” of
conflict.
Lucien Rajakarunanayake, director of the government’s Policy Research and
Information, explained that the commission was similar to the Truth Commission
established in the
He also told The Times that some 4,000 former Tigers were undergoing “rehabilitation”
in addition to another 4,000 who had completed that program, which includes
teaching them livelihood skills.
He stressed, however, that participating in the rehabilitation program did not
exempt the former terrorists from criminal liabilities.
Meanwhile,
In 2011, the GDP growth rate was projected at 8 percent, the deputy minister
added.
GDP is the total cost of final goods and services produced in the country in a
year.
“People can use this [
Even
“The country is open for business—long and short of that,” Director
Rajakarunanayake told The Times, adding that the country was looking for
sustainable industries that would add value to its primary products—rubber,
tea, cinnamon and spices.
“Several years of helplessness and despair has changed,” he said.
Next: ‘War on poverty’
Deputy Minister Amunugama said, “We are now in the second war—the war against
poverty.”
President Rajapaksa agreed. As he prepares for his second six-year term to
begin in November, he told The Times that he wants to focus on the closing the
gap between rich and poor.
He added that the he wanted to accelerate development in the former territories
of the Tigers, making the quality of life in those depressed areas at par with
the rest of the country.
Director Rajakarunanayake said that many children in the former Tiger
territories have not even seen trains, because terrorists had blown up the
railway tracks a long time ago.
“That era is now over, no more,” the secretary said in a speech at the economic
summit in
“
“What I want is to develop the country and make people happy,” he told The
Times. He also said that he would like to be remembered as a “man who loved the
people and the country.”
Manila Times