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Former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, in an interview with Daily Mirror speaks about his future plans, diplomatic ties he developed during the war time and the charges levelled against him.
Excerpts From The interview:
Q In the book authored by former Foreign Secretary of India Shivshankar Menon, he has referred to a troika involving you in the Sri Lankan side. He has referred to how the west tried to secure a safe passage for the LTTE leaders at the last stage of the war. How do you respond?
In this book by Mr. Menon who is well recognized and authoritative, has written a lot about good things we did. From the very beginning, we identified the importance of India and what it could do. We wanted to keep India with us. We identified that. I have seen criticism on the foreign policy of Mahinda Rajapaksa. This is where it was highly successful. He had a very successfull policy. At that time, the war was the most important thing to handle. We understood the need to keep India with us. That is why we created this troika. That is beyond the normal channel of the Foreign Ministry for closer connections to tackle issues related to the conflict. There was a troika from their side. We had ours here including me. It helped us to solve many issues.
Q What about the United States or the West for that matter trying to secure a safe passage for the LTTE leaders?
That is what he says. The west tried to get the LTTE leaders out of that area by working out a ceasefire. That would have given another chance for Prabhakaran to fight. You could see why we could not agree to it.
Q>How strong was the pressure?
It was a huge pressure. You could imagine the US and the west exerting such pressure to stop the war. The US, at the beginning, helped us. But, with the change of the government and policies there later on, the situation changed. Later on, the Obama government appointed officials such as Samantha Power, Nisha Biswal who gave opinions on human rights. They and the western governments wanted us to stop the war forgetting the fact that the LTTE failed them many times. They have forgotten history.
Q How important is India for future relations?
It is very important. We understood it at the beginning and reached India. Unfortunately, with the change of government in India from Congress to BJP, some officials of the new government misunderstood our relationship with China.
I met twice National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, once in India and once in Sri Lanka. On those occasions, he told me they were not happy with Chinese investments in Sri Lanka. He categorically told me that they wanted us to stop the Port City Project and to take full control of the Hambantota Harbour. He also asked us to take back the full operation of the South Terminal of the Colombo Port.
These are very specific things. I tried to explain to him. We gave the assurance that we will not allow anybody to use the Sri Lankan soil to do anything against India. Our relationship with China is different. We have long diplomatic relations with China. China is the only country that can help us at this juncture on economy development. We need that development which is a must. Our country was destroyed for 32 years. We suffered because of the war. Now we want to develop that country. That is why we took all this assistance.
Unfortunately, India did not believe it due to influence at that time from the West. India decided to work against the MR government. They can do a lot. The Tamil National Alliance listens to India. The Indian origin Tamil community is there. India has control over them. They can do lot of things. It is a factor.
http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/51598
Excerpts From The interview:
Q In the book authored by former Foreign Secretary of India Shivshankar Menon, he has referred to a troika involving you in the Sri Lankan side. He has referred to how the west tried to secure a safe passage for the LTTE leaders at the last stage of the war. How do you respond?
In this book by Mr. Menon who is well recognized and authoritative, has written a lot about good things we did. From the very beginning, we identified the importance of India and what it could do. We wanted to keep India with us. We identified that. I have seen criticism on the foreign policy of Mahinda Rajapaksa. This is where it was highly successful. He had a very successfull policy. At that time, the war was the most important thing to handle. We understood the need to keep India with us. That is why we created this troika. That is beyond the normal channel of the Foreign Ministry for closer connections to tackle issues related to the conflict. There was a troika from their side. We had ours here including me. It helped us to solve many issues.
Q What about the United States or the West for that matter trying to secure a safe passage for the LTTE leaders?
That is what he says. The west tried to get the LTTE leaders out of that area by working out a ceasefire. That would have given another chance for Prabhakaran to fight. You could see why we could not agree to it.
Q>How strong was the pressure?
It was a huge pressure. You could imagine the US and the west exerting such pressure to stop the war. The US, at the beginning, helped us. But, with the change of the government and policies there later on, the situation changed. Later on, the Obama government appointed officials such as Samantha Power, Nisha Biswal who gave opinions on human rights. They and the western governments wanted us to stop the war forgetting the fact that the LTTE failed them many times. They have forgotten history.
Q How important is India for future relations?
It is very important. We understood it at the beginning and reached India. Unfortunately, with the change of government in India from Congress to BJP, some officials of the new government misunderstood our relationship with China.
I met twice National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, once in India and once in Sri Lanka. On those occasions, he told me they were not happy with Chinese investments in Sri Lanka. He categorically told me that they wanted us to stop the Port City Project and to take full control of the Hambantota Harbour. He also asked us to take back the full operation of the South Terminal of the Colombo Port.
These are very specific things. I tried to explain to him. We gave the assurance that we will not allow anybody to use the Sri Lankan soil to do anything against India. Our relationship with China is different. We have long diplomatic relations with China. China is the only country that can help us at this juncture on economy development. We need that development which is a must. Our country was destroyed for 32 years. We suffered because of the war. Now we want to develop that country. That is why we took all this assistance.
Unfortunately, India did not believe it due to influence at that time from the West. India decided to work against the MR government. They can do a lot. The Tamil National Alliance listens to India. The Indian origin Tamil community is there. India has control over them. They can do lot of things. It is a factor.
http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/51598
