President repeats call to LTTE End violence, enter democracy

‘Military action aimed only at Tigers’ :

INDIA: President Mahinda Rajapaksa has again urged Velupillai Prabhakaran and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to give up violence in the interest of the Tamils of the country and enter into negotiations with the Government.

In an interview with the Chennai-based Tamil Language bi-weekly magazine Junior Vikatan (November 23 issue) he said the “LTTE uses such ceasefires to force unwilling civilians and also conscript children into its fighting cadre. It has also been established, that the LTTE uses the ceasefire period to eliminate the alternate Tamil political voices. My Government does not wish to commit the same mistake of the past and this stance has in no way hampered our determination and commitment to find a political solution to the conflict”.

“I once again appeal to the LTTE to denounce violence in the interest and of the welfare of the Tamil people and enter the non violent path of democracy,” he told the interviewer.

“Our military actions are strictly directed at the LTTE terrorists and not against the Tamil people. However, it has been internationally acknowledged that the LTTE was forcibly using the civilian as human shields and is not allowing them to move into safer areas, especially the Safe Corridor towards South.”

The President recalled that he was the first leader to address the United Nations Assembly this year in Tamil language. “I also addressed our Parliament in Tamil. I have never been against Tamils”.

Referring to the TMVP leader Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, he said Muralitharan has chosen the path of democracy along with many other militants. This step should be appreciated as a positive move towards democracy, which will benefit the Tamil people.

This is also a good example which I hope Mr. Prabhakaran will consider at least at this late stage in the interest of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka.

He noted that 52 per cent of the Sri Lankan Tamils are living outside the Northern part of Sri Lanka among the Sinhalese and Muslim communities.

He said the Government rejected the LTTE’s ceasefire call based on the past track record of the LTTE, which is known for announcing and requesting for ceasefire in order to re-arm and re-group whenever they have been militarily weakened.

“There is a notion among certain section of people in Tamil Nadu that what is happening at present in Sri Lanka as ‘genocide’. It is

actually the LTTE which carried out an ethnic cleansing of the Sinhala and Tamil speaking Muslims from the Northern part of Sri Lanka in 1990. The LTTE has killed more Tamil leaders.”

He said the air capability of the LTTE is a challenge not only to Sri Lanka but also to all the countries in the South Asian region. The full interview will be published tomorrow.