Main task against LTTE has been achieved: Rajapaksa

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that he had addressed the main concern of the people — for which they elected him as President — that of safeguarding the country’s security.

“They wanted their motherland to be free from terrorism, and fragmentation as per the agreements inked between the terrorists and the past governments,” he told the workers of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) on Friday.

“This was my foremost task, responsibility and duty which I have successfully achieved. We have now the strength to visit the Tiger terrorists’ stronghold and their administrative capital of Kilinochchi. I visited Kilinochchi with glad tidings of comfort and joy for the new year, to our gallant war heroes who have achieved all this,” he said.

“He maintained that certain reactionary forces and friends of the terrorists, both locally and internationally, are making unfounded allegations against the government and seeking to save the terrorists from their definite and inevitable doom.

“They are accusing the government of human rights violations and the like. It is extremely regretful that some of our leaders too are aiding and abetting this campaign to deprive their motherland of international monetary and other assistance. However, the world is aware of the whole truth and the reality. And we receive all what we need and expect sans any hindrance or disruption”.

Separately, Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa told the BBC that the government could not go for another humanitarian pause in the north as the 48 hour pause a few days ago did not yield any results.

The Defence Secretary made the observations after a meeting between Vijay Nambiar, chief of staff of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The U.N., which welcomed the 48-hour pause, had expressed the view that a longer pause would have been more useful.

“I told him (Mr. Nambiar) that we cannot extend our decision to restrict offensive military operations because there was no result during the previous halt in the fighting,” the Defence Secretary said.

“It’s a hostage rescue operation, something like the Entebbe rescue mission,” he said, referring to Israel’s 1976 rescue of more than 100 hostages from Entebbe airport in Uganda.

“It has to be discreet and surgical. We are carefully monitoring the ground situation. When the time comes we will go in, it is purely for the field commanders to decide.” At the same time, Mr. Gothabaya Rajapaksa said the government did not want a prolonged operation because that would give more time for the rebels to regroup.

He again denied allegations that the security forces were firing heavy weapons in the safe zone. “However, if the rebel leader, Prabakaran, is seen then we will take him out, even if it is inside the safe zone. But we will take all measures to avoid civilian casualties.”

The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) said that the 21st batch of 514 civilians, including those injured, was evacuated on board m.v. Green Ocean. The evacuation of patients and civilians trapped in LTTE clutches in the un-cleared areas in Mullaithivu was being carried out under the ICRC flag.

The Navy also said it rescued 59 civilians who had been fleeing from the LTTE clutches on two occasions. All had been found on board white flag hoisted fibre glass dinghies