Entrapped civilians:

‘Humanitarian concerns uppermost’

The Government is sending supplies to an estimated 250,000 as we don’t want to take any chances. There are stories about malnutrition and under-nourishment. One has to only look at these people who are coming out of the LTTE held areas to see that there is absolutely no indication that the people are starving

Q: The LTTE is engaged in a do or die battle. They are targeting military forces from the No Fire Zone. This is a testing period for the Government Forces. Are you confident that in the coming days you can hold on to your international human rights obligations?

There is no ambiguity in that. We are very conscious of our international humanitarian obligations, the laws of this country and constitutional rights. You may not be aware that our soldiers carry in their pockets a booklet on IHL-International Humanitarian Law.

We have HR focal points in the three armed Forces to directly report to the respective Commanders. They undergo specialized training in HR. Ours is a highly professional army. There is no room for any deviation from the bottom line requirement that civilians will not and cannot be targeted in the process of engaging the enemy.

This is also why we are taking such a long time to liberate this very very small area . We have liberated a vast stretch of land in a very short period. Liberating a 20 sq kms could be done in a matter of 48 hours, I would say, with the kind of strength that we have. The fact that we are not using long range weapons, aerial bombardments means that it has to be fought, man-to-man, door-to-door, street-to-street.

We are basically inching our way forward and as a result the army is suffering very heavy casualties. There is no alternative to this. And we are confident that we will complete the job very soon.

Q: The High Commissioner for Human Rights Navaneethan Pillay and the HRW have also accused the LTTE of keeping civilians as a human shield. Are you satisfied with the international pressure on the LTTE to release them ?

Whilst we welcome such statements we expect much more from the international community. The real issue, in that as long as the LTTE is allowed to forcibly keep these civilians, the problem will grow and make it more difficult to be corrected.

It is important to use consistent and concerted pressure and also not to do or say anything which would strengthen the LTTE. We need to bring immense pressure on the LTTE continuously on a daily basis to release civilians.

But looking at it realistically I don’t think the LTTE will succumb to these pressures. I don’t think they care a pittance about what the international community thinks and feels. But they may care about what the Tamil diaspora will think and feel because that is their life blood.

I would advocate a strategy of working through the Tamil diaspora to bring pressure on the LTTE to let go these civilians. Unfortunately this has not happened so far. It is pretty obvious that this is not part of the agenda of the Tamil diaspora when you look at the demonstrations taking place in Toronto, Geneva, Washington, London or Brussels. I did not see anyone in these demonstrations calling on the LTTE to let go of these civilians.

There are laws in these countries which prohibit fund raising activities for LTTE in particular and its glorification in some instances. I think as much as pressuring Sri Lanka to behave properly, these countries who have listed LTTE as a terrorist organisation should turn the search light inward to do what is possible to ensure that this kind of open glorification of a ruthless terrorist organisation is not tolerated.

Q: According to Government data, how many civilians are still trapped in the No Fire Zone?

No one has been able to count how many civilians are actually there. But I can tell you that this is nothing close to the figure that has been quoted internationally, from the aerial images and information from the civilians who crossed over and also going by the very small extent of land, 20sq km in which these people are held hostage. I don’t want to go officially on the numbers.

What we do is send in more supplies than the numbers what we actually believe there are. The LTTE is also taking these supplies and there was a mass rebellion against the LTTE over this recently.

Q: For how many people do you send in supplies?

According to Mr.Basil Rajapaksa the Government is sending supplies to an estimated 250,000 as we don’t want to take any chances. There are stories about malnutrition and under-nourishment.

One has to only look at these people who are coming out of the LTTE held areas to see that there is absolutely no indication that the people are starving. The important thing is not the numbers. The important thing is that we need to get these civilians out. We are working very hard to ensure they are brought to safe areas as soon as possible.

Q: UN Humanitarian Chief Sir. John Holmes on Thursday said the UN called for a Humanitarian Pause to get the trapped civilians freed. How do you respond to this?

This is nothing new, it is a reiteration of what the UN had been saying. No one can force us in our objective of releasing the civilians from the clutches of terrorism. No country can be asked to live with terrorism. What they say is to ensure that civilians are not harmed in any way while doing that . We have assured that ours is a humanitarian operation. There is absolutely no compromise on our part in ensuring the safety of civilians.

Q: The operations in the North have reached a decisive phase. How do you view any international intervention to halt or delay military action at this point?

If the Sri Lankan issue is brought before the Security Council, it could only send a message to the LTTE that they could continue to hold these civilians hostage and commit the gruesome human rights violations only a ruthless terrorist organisation can commit. The LTTE is now on the verge of being eliminated.

International community must understand this and support us in this endeavour. It is also important that whoever comments on Sri Lanka must get their facts and figures correct. Because coming out with innuendos and half truths and speculation will only make the task of the LTTE much easier.

Q: The Sri Lankan issue is a hot topic at the UN Security Council. What is the current situation?

The current situation is that, there was another briefing outside the Security Council last week. It was more of an information sharing and updating and clarification of events in Sri Lanka for interested parties.

These kinds of regular briefings should be held in Colombo and not in New York. We have representatives of the five permanent members (of the Security Council) in Colombo and also India and Japan. We are willing to sit down with them on a regular basis with all Government focal points. Any misinformation and disinformation can be corrected then and there.

LTTE propaganda machinery is extremely effective. The on going situation is consistently distorted and misinterpreted in the most effective way. We are willing to listen to the international community provided that these suggestions are constructive and practical and do not compromise security concerns. Holmes wrote to the President suggesting some improvements on how we receive the civilians and how to look after them in camps.

We studied his recommendations and held discussions with Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa MP and Minister Rishad Badiudeen. We found some of the recommendations (e.g. there should be no military presence inside the camp) are already in place.

The camp management has been taken over by the Ministry of Resettlement. The military presence was there during VVIP visits due to security reasons. Despite performing a great job the Army was removed, since it was felt their presence could be intimidating.

We will continue to give access to the UN and INGOs in complementing efforts of the Government. Several local NGOs also met Basil Rajapaksa and expressed their interest to help. This request is also under consideration.

Another, issue is the freedom of movement. We have already established two old people centres, in a Hindu temple and a Christian Church to give these old people who don’t have relatives to stay until resettlement takes place. Registration is continuing.

When issuing IDs are completed, civilians would be allowed freedom of movement. But there will always be follow-up checks to ensure that there is no infiltration by the LTTE. This is not an easy request to implement, but we are willing to progressively look at it without compromising the security objective.

Q: Setting up of Model Villages have begun. The international donors, funding this project opposed the idea to resettle the Vanni civilians in their respective homelands after three years?

We have never said three years, that is once again a big misunderstanding. What we said was that we would like to resettle these civilians without taking any short cuts. We can’t just resettle them in their villages before the environment is made secure for them to go back. It is essential to de-mine the land which had been heavily mined by the LTTE before they withdrew.

Infrastructure, other services and amenities have to be restored. Finally the people themselves must agree to return and resettle. We cannot force them to go back. We believe the majority of these people could be resettled before the end of the year. That is the Government’s objective. We are working hard towards this.