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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rapa" data-source="post: 1107167" data-attributes="member: 212">Q: Can the Government escape the allegation over the suspected conspiracy to send TMVP Leader Karuna to UK?A: No, we do not want to. Karuna is a militant who had joined the democratic front giving up arms. That is what we want. That is what the international community want and everybody wants. Then why we are crucifying Karuna who had given up arms. We have to help him. The international community must also help him rather than putting him into the jail. Because he is a person who had accepted, for whatever the reason, to give up arms and also convinced his cadres to give up arms to come into the democratic process.This is what we are asking Prabhakaran to do. So why is everybody criticising Karuna. He has done the major thing and we have to help him to groom. We have to help him to get into the democratic process more and we will of course support him to contest elections to win the elections. If people are willing to select him he can become the Chief Minister of the eastern province. That is what other Tamil politicians like Minister Douglas Devananda and Siddarthan, who were one time militants did.We know that karuna's two children and his wife are there. Who helped them to go there? The government cannot forge a British visa. Somehow he got his British visa using his capabilities and contacts. He went to see his family because his two daughters are there. I do not see any wrong in that and it is not human to separate a father from a family. That is violation of human rights. The world talk about human rights why not Karuna's human rights. He was number two in Prabhakaran's outfit who conducted several successful operations. Despite all that he gave up arms and entered into the democratic front with his cadres. We must not harass him.The international community talk so much about settling conflicts, then why they do not help these people who had given up terrorism. What is the aim behind it. I do not see the logic of these criticisms.Q: What is the progress of the TMVP after Karuna's arrest. Do you think Pilleyan will follow the democratic process?A: Yes, of course. As far as I know that Pilleyan is Karuna's second in command. So he must follow the democratic process. And there are some complaints about them about abductions and other activities. But these incidence have come to minimum.The government has taken several steps to disarm them and they have also realised the situation. These are the people who fought for a cause. But now these people have given an opportunity to serve in their areas in a democratic manner. So we have to help them and they also must realise there are other means to serve people than resorting to terror activities and should stop harassing people. I do not see any reason for them to harass people.Because they are the people who are waiting to come for elections, to win and serve the people and also give the political leadership. There are are no reason for them to abduct people and if they are doing so they should stop these..If there are complaints we have given the instructions to the police to take action and we do not allow these people to move in these areas with weapons.Q: But in the recent SLMM report the TMVP was alleged to have conducted abductions and forcing people to do patrol in the areas in the east. According to military investigations who are responsible for the isolated violence?A: I do not know as we have not got major complaints about abduction for the last six months. I do not know what incident that the SLMM is quoting. But as far as I know and according to the feed backs what I am getting from the civil administration reported cases of abductions are minimum.Q: Do you think that there is a need to abolish the CFA?A: Yes. The vital fact is there is no CFA and it is just a document. The CFA is a joke. We had signed several peace agreements and they are still in existence.Indo-Lanka agreement is still there. When signing a new peace agreement, the previous peace agreements should be abolished but it never happened. I think since Thimpu we have so many peace agreements.I believe that the most sensible thing is that we must abolish the ceasefire agreement. It should be officially end. The CFA is there and every day it is violated making the CFA a big joke.Officially we should say that there is no ceasefire agreement and we should ban the LTTE because it is a terrorist organisation. I think these two steps - banning the LTTE and officially declaring the abolition of the CFA should be done immediately.Then the President can come out with a new set of proposals to address the problems of the Tamil people. One should remember that we should not give solutions for the LTTE, which is a terrorist organisation. Our solutions should be for the Tamil people and their leaders.Q: But President Rajapaksa has recently said that the government will ban the LTTE if they continue to attack?A: Probably the President wants to give the LTTE some opportunities to come forward for negotiations. But my personal opinion is to ban the LTTE immediately.Q: Do you think that the military victories will pave the way to peaceful solutions as claimed by the President recently?A: Yes. Definitely. Where we have failed so far is combating terrorism. Different leaders in different times came out with different solutions. But could not implement them. The main obstacle was the LTTE. So obviously if we can defeat the LTTE we could implement the solutions. Those who are interested in settling this problem should consider the genuineness of the parties.The international community must understand and should not put undue pressure on the Sri Lankan Government. Even the UN and other international organisations must remember not to put on undue pressure on the genuine party, the government. This will lead to worsen the problem. The Government has come to a position that we can put down the LTTE militarily.So all these international organisations must put their pressure on the LTTE to come into the democratic process. If they put pressure on genuine party then they are helping the terrorists. The international community should understand that the Sri Lankan government is fighting with a ruthless man and his organisation.Q: Why do you think that certain Ministers do not trust the security personnel assigned by the government and keep the underworld criminals as their bodyguards?A: I do not know, you have to ask the question from those Ministers. Q: You have said that Prabhakaran's birthday which was held last November 26 would be his last birthday.Actually I did not say that but a journalist has mentioned it. But I wish that it could be true.Q: Rajapaksa family is popular in politics. Do you have any plans to enter into politics now?A: No. I do not know politics. After school I joined the army and I was a very disciplined army officer. In my career I had taken part in major operations under the UNP governments while my brothers were in the Opposition. When you are a professional and when you are in the military you do not think about politics. I worked very closely with Minister Ranjan Wijeratne and he praised me on many occasions. But I do not have any interest to enter into politics.I did not get this job as I was unemployed.I was financially better off and worked in a country where I had many perks. I have truly done a sacrifice. One thing is my son is there and even when I was in the army I sacrificed the joy of being with my son. I did not gained anything while being the Defence Secretary rather than the satisfaction over doing the job correctly.Q: You have said that the war should not be dragged on any further. Can the government give a time frame to end terrorism?A: Giving a time frame is difficult. It all depends on the success of the operation and if we can get more and more LTTE leaders it will be more sooner.We are going in the correct direction. The Government and the Service Commanders are very confident that we can defeat terrorism soon. But the other part which is very vital in finding a lasting solution lies in the hands of politicians.We have to come out with a political solution and it is very important to have the political solution parallel to the military operations. It will help to isolate Prabhakaran more and more from peace loving civilians.Courtesy : Sunday Observer</blockquote>

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