Govt. military strategy works towards peace building

Commonsense by Y. King

The Government's military strategy worked well and the security forces were able to weaken the terrorists' power in the East thereby reducing the Tiger violence to a considerable level.

Though the Tigers escaping from the East to the Wanni jungles, hiding in the bushes, still launch cowardly attacks on soldiers and civilians, the environment in the East is comparatively peaceful.

The Tiger tactics to disrupt the day-to-day life in the areas out of the North and the East by exploding bombs in passenger vehicles also failed as the military and the police took precautionary measures by educating the masses to keep thorough vigilance at public places.

Our experience was that at every successful move by the security forces to tame the Tigers, some local or foreign elements intervened suddenly and threatened the past Government to stop action. The present Government did not heed such threats as it used its peoples mandate to chase the Tigers from the East and liberate the people from their claws.

Even those elements seemed to understand this time the correct action by the Government, after civilians in Tiger held Vakarai were liberated in thousands by the security forces during the capture of the area recently.

The donor countries have clearly understood the Government's sincere effort this time and as a result pledged US$4.5 aid sans any condition. This bears ample testimony towards the stability of the Government. The victory in the East demonstrated well the morale of the three security forces and their competency to handle the terrorist issue successfully, and the capture of Vakarai will attest how strategic and powerful our forces in tackling the terrorists provided the outside forces do not interfere in military affairs. The Government decision to assign politicians to work on the peace process while allowing the security forces to protect the national security has brought many results, and this strategy should continue until Tiger terrorism is eliminated from this soil to liberate the people completely from this nuisance and accelerate the proposed 10 year development plan under the Mahinda Chintana to create a better tomorrow for the people irrespective of petty differences.

Donors realising truth

The decision by the donor agencies including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank to pledge US$4.5 billion and support President Mahinda Rajapaksa's 10 year development plan is clear evidence that the international community has kept full confidence in the government and its sincere effort to bring lasting peace to the country.

During the Development Forum at Galle, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa explained to the donor countries why the Government took stern action against the LTTE, and its results are obvious. One is the LTTE losing its theatre of terrorism in the East, and now the crestfallen Tigers have shown their willingness to talk to Norwegians regarding peace talks. This is a sincere effort of the Government, to change the overestimated and dictator type attitudes of Pirabakaran and force him to send his delegation to talk peace.

Even donor countries took a long time to understand this simple truth. It costs thousands of lives, destruction to property worth millions of rupees and delay of upgrading the lives of people particularly in the North and the East and the country in general. Now the time is conducive.

On one hand political stability is assured in the Government while on the other hand the LTTE acts are on a low ebb. Planning and implementing the proposed ten year development scheme without delay and sincere commitment of all stakeholders is the need of the hour to bring peace and plenty to the country.

Allan Rock scared

UN special envoy Allan Rock received much publicity in these columns as well in other newspapers in Sri Lanka after his bizarre findings on child conscription during his two-hour visit to LTTE held areas in the East. We, as journalists had a duty by the nation to deny his misleading findings. True, Ambassador Rock points his finger more at the LTTE, but his allegation on the security forces is the faux pas what we wanted to convince him before he present his report to the UN security council and not with any intention of smearing mud on Mr. Rock. Now it seems that Mr.Rock issuing media reports to the Canadian press that the Sri Lankan media and the Government have launched a smear campaign to affect his report and mar his image. Yes, it is a campaign to dispel the falsehood of Mr.Rock's findings that elements in the security forces are recruiting children for combat operations in the East. Poor Rock has been pulled by a group of Tigers at a fund raising campaign in Canada and asked him to pose for a picture with them is Mr.Rock's excuse to deny his involvement in LTTE fund raising. We wonder whether Mr.Rock has read stories of the famous Andare (King clown) who was caught red handed while stealing toddy from a coconut tree. "I climbed the tree to cut grass", said Andare. When the owner insisted that there is no grass on the treetop, Andare's answer was convincing. "That's why I am alighting".

The world does not expect stories of Andare from a scholar, intellectual and professional international lawyer such as Allan Rock. The UN has given him a mission essentially to determine the fate of a nation. If it is going to serve a bunch of terrorists who have bled this country for over two decades with the patronage of the misled international community, the time is ripe for Mr.Rock too to join the enlightened world and realize the crimes of the Tigers and help the Government to tame them and liberate the sincere Tamil people from their prolonged plight and create a future for them and their young generation.

We have more in store to divulge for Mr. Rock if necessary where he went wrong in his findings.

Bohras continue to come

The official visit to Sri Lanka by the Bohra community leader has inspired many members of the community to visit Sri Lanka. The presence of Bohra tourists in the city is a common sight today as most of them come out from their hotel rooms and walk on the streets, use the common man's transport and visit shopping centres to have the real feeling of the business in the city.

A foreigner's visit need not be commended but the Bohras visit to Sri Lanka is different as they decided to come at a time when other tourists were reluctant to do so due to misinformation probably by exaggerated foreign media reports and other pro ETTE propaganda in the West. It is the duty of the respective authorities to facilitate the visiting Bohras during their stay in the country and the local Bohra community representatives have also a duty by the nation to educate their Indian counterparts on the correct picture of Sri Lanka and encourage them to pass on that message to other prospective travellers to visit Sri Lanka.

Genuine investors do not escape

We reported on page seven of the Sunday Observer today why a Malaysian telecommunication giant Telekom Malaysia is determined to invest in Sri Lanka. According to a CEO Yusof Yaacob, his company's strategy is not to wind up business from politically risky countries but to find strategies to manage such situations. Yaacob's business strategy could not be considered simple as it contains a deep reality in the day. Terrorism and other political turmoil have become the order of the day in many countries where there is business potential, and if those investors are scared away after every single isolated bomb explosion, labour protest and other minor incident, where are they going to do business is a question worth asking by those fuzzy investors themselves. TM is exemplary in this regard.

Similarly, another example is the opening of another Rs.1.5 billion upmarket luxury resort at Koggala. President Rajapaksa took time off his busy schedule during the Development Forum in Galle last week to participate in the official opening of the Fortress Resort.

The Fortress Hotel owner Dhammika Perera, is sure to be a confident man to put such a huge investment on this project at a time the news in town is of lack of tourists due to the conflict in the North and the East.

However, Perera might have foreseen the future in the industry, and signals of such bright future in the province are already seen with the launch of the second international airport at Weerawila. However, the determined local investors such as Perera should be commended for their sacrifice for the country and people.

The President himself seemed to understand such moves by local investors. The presence of the President at the opening of the hotel is clear evidence of his keenness and encouragement to such local investors.