Liberate Wanni in like manner - JHU

by Shanika Sriyananda

The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) says that the terrorism could be defeated during President Mahinda Rajapaksa's tenure.

The JHU strongman and the Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka said that if the Sri Lankan military attacks the terrorists in the Wanni in the same manner they attacked the East, the LTTE would disappear forever. "That will be the end of terrorism and there would not be a national problem to talk about", he told the Sunday Observer.

Minister Ranawaka said that those who had boasted about the capabilities of the LTTE saying that the LTTE was the most powerful terrorist out fit in the world, will not be able to say so any more. "The Sri Lankan military has defeated them. Will they run away leaving MBRL, rocket launchers and a huge amount of weapons if they were invincible", he said.

According to Minister Ranawaka no previous government had a continuous war against the LTTE terrorists at least for three years. "Recently, we met the Tamil community living in Paris and what they told us was that there was no strong determination to fight with the LTTE in the past".

Citing the Ache in Indonesia as the best example to end terrorism, he said their deadlines were set to solve the problem adopting a holistic approach. "At the beginning they did not agree with the recommended solutions, so they were attacked first and then weakened until a solution on the basic of a unitary state was arrived at. Here, also the same concept should be adopted.

In the Ache province they had an agenda which clearly gave deadlines for a ceasefire, handing over weapons, entering the democratic stream and so on. This is a holistic approach to the problem. All efforts in the past failed", he said.

He said that people at village level should be empowered to join the country's development process and the JHU recommended a 'grama rajya' concept in their proposals for the All Party Representative Committee to find real solutions to devolve power among people.

"People at village level should be given the opportunity to join the development process by participating in their own development activities", he said.