DOHA - The Sri Lankan government is dealing with an inflexible and intransigent adversary in the form of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), according to the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mangala Samaraweera. In fact, the group's refusal to come to the negotiating table is holding back any chances of peace.
The minister, in town to attend proceedings of the 5th Ministerial Meeting for Asia Cooperation Dialogue which officially starts here today, told The Peninsula: "The LTTE has become the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world. It is the only such organisation subjugating the very people they are fighting for."
He added that the LTTE was targeting the poorer sections of Tamil society on the island while the majority 54 per cent are living outside LTTE strongholds in an atmosphere of friendship and brotherhood.
"It is the poorest of the poor who are living in the north and the east. However, daily abductions continue unabated, they are subject to punishment by kangaroo courts, have illegal taxes imposed upon them and despite Sri Lanka being the oldest democracy in Asia, not allowed to vote," Samaraweera said. The right to exercise one's franchise has existed in Sri Lanka since 1931.
Despite several stop and start attempts, peace has remained elusive. This, the minister said, is because the LTTE refuses to sit at the negotiating table. Sri Lanka has been a troubled nation for three decades. But despite its troubles, we have been remarkably resilient," he said. The country's economy has been growing at a 5.5 to six per cent clip on an average and may shoot up to seven per cent by next year.
President Mahinda Rajapakse and his government was exercising restraint despite "severe provocation" in the form of suicide attacks and placement of landmines. While the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) had provided Sri Lanka with total support to cure its ills, he ruled out any possibility of asking any member-country for military aid. "The only option is negotiation, a settlement," he stated. He hoped, however, the EU, the US, Japan, Canada and India would play more of a role.
He said the LTTE preyed on Tamil diaspora globally, through means of extortion from the often hapless community. "It is a classic tactic of the LTTE, of using family connections. Families back home are used as bait to extort money," he remarked.
On labour conditions in the Gulf, he said cases of abuse were rare. Strict checks are carried out on manpower agencies to ensure their reliability and a monthly wage base had been set at a minimum of QR600 per month, in the case of Qatar. Samaraweera will be extending an official invitation to the Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani to pay a visit to Sri Lanka.
By Rabin Gupta
© The Peninsula 2006
