West tries to de-stabilise the country - Minister Champika Ranawaka
Technology, Research and Atomic Energy Minister Patali Champika
Ranawaka said the US , West, Tamil Nadu and neo-nazi Tamil separatist
movement are attempting to de-stabilise the country so that they can
interfere and rule here. That is their aim. The Minister in an interview
with the Sunday Observer said whether we devolve power to the North and
East or not , they are now widening their charge sheet. Earlier it was
only the accountability issue. Now they are talking about devolution and
religious disharmony. I think in time to come, they will talk about
violence against women and homosexuals. When we solve one problem, they
shift to another. We can’t satisfy them. What we should do is to have a
concrete policy to fight this challenge.
The Minister said Parliament is the supreme body where the people’s
sovereignty is vested which can decide on our internal matters, not the
UN. That way they simply infringe the UN charter which has accepted the
people's sovereignty and the autonomy of a country. They are now trying
to change our Constitution by force. They are attempting to impose their
social values to us on women, homosexuality and religious harmony. This
is a kind of social imperialism. As the Ugandan President clearly stated
when Uganda banned homosexuality, they imposed kind of sanctions to
them. This is unacceptable.
Q: The British Channel 4 is in the habit of producing a new
episode on the alleged human rights violations by Sri Lanka during the
final phase of the humanitarian operation. What have you got to say
about this?
A: Actually this is a pre-planned drama that these
Anglo-American conspirators are trying to contain and derailed and
finally make this country a anarchic place. That is what they need. So
they simply produce films, persons, organisations and various kinds of
facts and other things which they actually financed. Thereafter based on
these pseudo facts, they simply produce resolutions and various other
charges against this country. Thereafter , they are going to take
actions against us based on these pseudo facts and resolutions. Channel
4 is a pseudo type of helpers of this Anglo-American conspiracy to
destabilize this country.
Q: External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L.Peiris has
categorically rejected the allegation leveled against us in his initial
address in the UNHRC. But even in this backdrop, it is likely that the
US will move the resolution against us. If so will there be any negative
repercussion on our economy in the near future?
A: I think the US submitted this resolution with the tacit
approval of India. Otherwise, the US can't pass this resolution with a
majority vote in the UNHRC. What they only need is to pass some
resolution in the UNHRC. They all know that no executive arm there in
the UNHRC to execute this resolution. What their plan is that take
actions individually. EU and US are going to take actions based on this
resolution. Some other countries may follow suit. Basically what they
need is to move some resolution. The content and other things are not
specifically important to them. As an example, they passed a resolution
on Libya at the UN Security Council to support Libya in humanitarian
issue. Later on they supplied arms to rebels there and they simply
toppled down Gaddafi's Government. Therefore they also need some
international recognition to justify their action. I think they may
target us diplomatically. Basically they are targeting some groups which
are very close to the Government. Sometimes they target the entire
population. As an example, India is not reciprocating our Visa
procedures. But we give India 'on arrival' Visa. Except Sri Lanka,
Somalia and Sudan, India has given 'on arrival' visa status to all other
countries.
The US and EU countries, specifically target MPs, politicians, some
officials and military personnel by telling them that they are not going
to issue visas to them. That kind of diplomatic offensive is there to
freeze their asserts. They can simply use their investors varying our
Stock Market. As an example, lot of US investors are in the Stock
Market. Nearly 6 billion treasury bills are owned by the US investors.
All these investors can be discouraged to invest somewhere else. They
can also use the credit card facility because most of the credit card
companies are based in US.
They can tight this need so that our elite people couldn't make
transactions using credit card. They used this same tactic against
Myanmar and Iran. Through this stock market issue, they simply unsettled
and derailed the Indonesian economy in 1996.
They can use that kind of tactics to make a kind of uncertainty in
our economy in the eyes of the external people. Now they are doing same
thing against Russia to curtail the foreign tours of Russian MPs who
voted with Russian President Vladimir Putin to secure the Crimea. They
are also trying to freeze Russian asserts. Sometimes they are targeting
the elite and the general public so that the country is being derailed
and finally make a anarchic situation that they can directly interfere.
Q: There are enough and more substantial evidence in other
countries such as Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq to prove that human rights
violations were committed by the US and EU Forces. Leaving out those,
why are they only interested in calling for an international inquiry
only against our country?
A: It is not only the human rights issue. They all know we won
this war against terrorists in a very humanitarian way. Otherwise we
would have simply killed 11,000 LTTE cadres who surrendered. All
together in the Northern and Eastern provinces, 24,000 LTTE cadres
surrendered to the Army. They know not a single person was killed in Sri
Lanka after May 19, 2009. If the war prevailed they know that 4000
people may be killed per annum. That would be the human cost of this
war. The human casualty figure is about 2000 to 3000. The UN report on
the final days of the humanitarian operation has clearly stated that the
human casualty figure is just 8000 including LTTE fighters. Their
ulterior motive is the military and economic domination of the Indian
ocean. In 1875, the US became world’s largest economy, military power,
manufacturer and trader. But in 2010, China surpassed the US as the
world’s largest manufacturer, investor and trader. The China would also
become the world’s largest economy by 2020. Still the US dominate in the
fields of military, space, Dollar trading and internet. These are the
four pillars of the US strength now. They don’t have enough economic or
financial strength to dominate the entire world. So what they want is to
secure maritime dominance in Indian ocean. They know from North Africa,
Iran to Indonesia , this region would be the most important region in
the time to come. They simply want us to have their military footprint
here.
But the Indian strategy is different. They think this part of the
world belongs to them. This is their sphere of influence. No one should
interfere with their own locality. Finally what they want is a kind of
tributary state there in North and East and a vassal type of state in
Colombo. They think like Bhutan, they can control our country as well.
So they are using this so called human rights to achieve this goal. But
Tamil Nadu is having their “Dravidastan” dream. India’s first
secessionist movement in the modern time was Dravidayan movement. But
Delhi rulers were able to crushed it militarily and politically. They
are now badly want to research this goal. Militarily defeated neo-nazis
Tamil separatists wanted this international interference to carve out
this country using internationally accepted referendum. So these four
groups, US and West, India , Tamil Nadu and neo-nazy Tamil separatist
movement have their own agendas. There is some contradiction between
their aims. But now they all are trying to turn this country into an
unsettled state so that they can interfere and rule over this country.
That is their real aim. Whether we devolve power to the North and East
or not , they are now widening their charge sheet. Earlier it was only
on the accountability issue. Now they are talking about devolution and
religious disharmony. I think in time to come, they will talk about
violence against women and homosexuals. When we solve one problem, they
shift to another. We can’t satisfy these forces. What we should do is to
have a concrete policy to fight this challenge.
Q: Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the United Nations,
Ravinatha Ariyasinghe said that the latest draft resolution on Sri Lanka
at the UNHRC violates Sri Lanka’s Constitution, its sovereignty and
territorial integrity. Is it possible for you to elaborate this
statement?
A: They are asking us to give powers to the Northern and
Eastern provinces.
Parliament is the supreme body where the people’s sovereignty is
vested which can decide on these matters, not the UN. That way they
infringe the UN Charter which has accepted the people's sovereignty and
the autonomy of a country. They are now trying to change our
constitution by force. They are attempting to impose their social values
to us about women, homosexuality and religious harmony. This is a kind
of social imperialism. As Ugandan President clearly stated when Uganda
banned homosexuality, they imposed kind of sanctions to them. This is
completely unacceptable.
Q: What have you got to say about the stand taken by the TNA
welcoming the UNHRC resolution against Sri Lanka?
A: TNA is carrying out the LTTE ideology. They are not a
democratic alternative. They are a neo-nazy movement now. They do not
accept our constitution. They are inviting foreign forces to invade our
country. They are openly supporting Tamil Nadu racists to intervene into
our internal affairs. Bishop Rayappu Joseph and the TNA are thinking
that they are above the Sri Lankan constitution. So we have to punish
these people. This is a democratic country. But they should act as per
the constitution. They can’t talk about things which are beyond the
constitution. The so called legal pundits like Vigneswaran and all these
neo-nazis should be punished. Otherwise others may also follow. The same
thing happened in the 1970s and 1980s which was notnipped in the bud.
Before this spreads like a cancer, we have to suppress and y impose laws
against Rayappu Joseph, Vigneswaran and the TNA as a whole.
Q: The main Opposition UNP says that Geneva human rights
issues is a smokescreen by the Government to dilute the burning issues
in the country. Is there any truth in such allegations?
A: This is very unfortunate situation. When Kashmir issue was
raised at the UN Human Rights Commission against India in 1991, then
Indian Prime Minister was Narasimha Rao. He simply dispatched his
political rival, then Opposition Leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee to go to
Geneva and submit the proposals on behalf of the whole India. It was the
Opposition Leader who represented India. When anti-Sinhala riots were
being carried out in India in 2013, India dispatched their Opposition
Leader Sushma Suwaraj to Sri Lanka. Can our Opposition Leader Ranil
Wickremesinghe be our leader there in Geneva on behalf of Sri Lanka? Can
he deliver on behalf of our heroic soldiers and our country? Ranil
Wickremesinghe and his cohorts betrayed this country in 2002.
Fortunately our people simply dislodged that traitorous campaign. They
are actually following Ahelepola Nilame. Ahelepola Nilame believed that
he can dislodge king Rajasinghe and become a king with the help of the
English people’s support. Finally what happened was he lost his life and
family and we lost our country as well. The UNP and other parties are
now dreaming when Western countries contain this country, this
Government would be toppled down using external forces so that they can
come to power. But the normal UNPers know that Ranil Wickremesinghe’s
strategy is not acceptable. That is why the UNP has turned into a 20
percent small party now. Because all these people rejected this
strategy. The UNP’s problem is not the leadership, but the policy they
adopt. It is a complete anti-Sri Lankan policy which provokes and incite
separatists and fundamentalists against this society. That is why they
get defeated all the time. Their strategy should be defeated this time
as well.
Q: Inter-religious or inter-racial conflicts and scuffles are
a common place occurrence in most of the developing countries. How is it
that a few incidents in Sri Lanka had been blown out of proportion to be
internationalized by hostile elements?
A: They are acting with these international forces. The
international forces wanted to implement the concept of responsibility
to protect. To do that, they want to portray this country as a place
where religious disharmony prevails. So they submitted pseudo reports to
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. One of the charges
against me in their report is to promote vegetarianism. Some kind of
fundamental sector in the Muslim society attempt to promote religious
disharmony. When the LTTE chased out Muslims from the North and
massacred Muslims in Ampara, 26,000 Sinhala soldiers died to protect
Muslims. But no gratitude of that sacrifice and no mention about the
LTTE atrocities. They are now trying to implore religious disharmony and
the radical elements within the Muslim society are trying to create a
fear psychosis among the moderate Muslims there by they can carry out
their radical and extremist movement. Because the society at large is in
a kind of psychosis. We should be aware about their strategy. Moderate
Muslims should know that. This kind of things should be rejected by the
majority of this country. I accept the fact that some people think they
are above the law. They are trying to destroy things and assault the
people. These people should be brought to book and punish them.
Otherwise we would not be able to prevail peace in our country. The
Muslims should think that this internal threat is real, not the external
one they are trying to implicate.
Q: The main Opposition UNP is trying to bring a no-confidence
motion against the Government citing various irregularities. What is the
reason for them to bring in such a motion at this crucial moment in the
country?
A: The UNP is trying to engage in popular politics. They
always talk about the cost of living. This cost of living issue is being
exploited during our political history. Even former leaders who ruled
the country also gave various popular promises to the people from time
to tome. Every time the main opposition charge about these commissions,
omissions and corruptions. What we actually need is a real program to
improve the living standards and income level of the people. That is the
only way to fight with this cost of living issue. We can talk about
anti-corruption. But we don't practiceit. We proudly say from 2007 up to
date, we manage our ministries in an exemplary way how to govern this
country without any charges of corruptions, malpractices or
inefficiency.
Q: The National Drug Policy is to be introduced shortly mainly
based on Senaka Bibile's recommendations. Will there be impact on drug
imports, manufacture and distribution which has direct bearing the
health of the nation?
A: That is an important Bill that we should pass. Because it y
stipulates our drug policy. Otherwise this drug mafia may dominate this
country and the people's health. I think we have to salvage our people
and their well-being from this drug castle and mafia. It is long-term.
We can't have drastic or revolutionary measures. First we should have a
policy. Then there should be a strategy based on the policy. Finally
there should be an action plan based on strategy. I think this is a very
important step in this country's history to implement Senaka Bibile's
policy.
Q: Now that the JHU is an integral part of the UPFA
Government, how do you explain the prospects for the Dharma Rajya in the
country?
A: Its not our concept. When Ven. Arahath Mihinda thera came
to this country, king Devanampiyatissa asked a question “where do you
come from?” Then Ven. Arahath Mahinda thera replied that they were
disciples of Dharma Rajya. From Arahath Mihinda thera, our Buddhist
society is trying to achieve this Dharma Rajya. It is not the JHU's
concept. It is actually underlined the goal of this nation throughout
the history of this country. We proudly say without our interference,
this country would have been dominated by LTTE terrorists and other
extremist groups. We preserved and protected this country's unitary
status. This country would have been a federal country without our
interference. We set an example on how to govern this country in a
transparent manner without corruption, malpractice and inefficiency. I
think middle class people, the educated, academics and professionals
admire our way of doing things.
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