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Indo-Lanka co-operation helped in ending terrorism - Defence Secretary

angeldemon_007

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Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa giving evidence before the Mount Lavinia District Judge MCBS Moraes yesterday said that the government succeeded in eradicating terrorism in the country due to the close co-operation between Sri Lanka and India.

The Defence Secretary said that the Indian government was regularly kept informed of what was happening in Sri Lanka during the humanitarian operation.

This strategy averted many misunderstandings which could have resulted in abrupt halts as was the case in the Vadamarachchi operation in the 1980s.

He was giving evidence in the defamation case against Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickrematunga and the Leader Publications company when it was taken up for hearing yesterday.

The plaintiff Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa complained that his reputation and good name was ruined due to the articles published between July and September 2007 in the Sunday Leader newspaper and claimed Rs 1,000 million as damages.

The Defence Secretary said that India is the only country which could interfere with Sri Lanka militarily due to its close proximity to Sri Lanka.

He added that terrorism would have ended 25 years ago, if there was proper coordination with the Indian government. Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said that the Vadamarachchi operation led by General Wijaya Wimalaratne and General Denzil Kobbekaduwa had to be stopped due to pressure exerted by India.

The Defence Secretary said that high level delegations were appointed by Sri Lanka and India with a view to sharing information with regard to the humanitarian operation.

He said that there was an era in which people believed what war analysts reported in papers.

They wrote articles giving indication that the number of soldiers injured in the humanitarian operation was always high. Such reporting resulted in the declining morale of soldiers. He said the people needed to know what was actually happening in the battlefield and there was no vibrant source that gave accurate news on the battle field.

The Defence Secretary said the Defence Ministry started a website Sri Lanka News - The Official Government News Portal of Sri Lanka with a view to disseminating more accurate news on the government’s mission of eradicating terrorism in Sri Lanka.

He said that over 40 million people around the world had visited the website at the last stage of the humanitarian operation.

The Defence Secretary also mentioned the Civil Defence Force which was mainly involved in protecting civilians in villages threatened by the terrorists in the North and East. The Defence Secretary said the number of CDF personnel was also increased from 19,000 to 42,000 and over 5,000 made their contribution at the last stage of the humanitarian operation.

Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said that there was a belief among the public and foreign countries that terrorism cannot be defeated at the time he was appointed Defence Secretary.

He added that the Ceasefire Agreement had been violated more than 10,000 times by the terrorists and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission had received more than 3,000 complaints.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa had informed India that Sri Lanka was prepared to negotiate with the LTTE, while keeping the ploys adopted by them for the past 35 years in mind.

Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said that President Rajapaksa stressed the importance of strengthening the Sri Lankan Security Forces.

He said that the government had to implement a number of programmes to boost the morale of the Security Forces. The Defence Secretary said the number of personnel in the Sri Lanka Army was increased from 20,000 to 220,000 after he assumed duties as Defence Secretary with the approval of the President who is also the Commander in Chief.

Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said a series of programmes were also launched for the welfare of Security Forces personnel.

He stated that the intelligence service was sagging when he took over the reins of the ministry and the intelligence services of Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Air Force, Civil Defence Force and other security establishments were combined and they took a concerted effort in the eradication of terrorism.

The Defence Secretary added that the number of Civil Defence Force personnel was increased from 19,000 to 42,000 and it helped protect villages threatened by terrorists.

Defence Secretary Rajapaksa added that he as the brother President Rajapaksa was blessed with the opportunity of informing him of what was actually happening in the defence sector at any time of the day.

He described an instance where the Director Operations of the Army phoned him and said that the ammunition for a particular weapon is running out and the military was in urgent need of that kind of ammunition.

The Defence Secretary stated that he promptly informed the President about it and the President was directly involved in purchasing the necessary ammunition through the Head of State of that country.

He said his father represented the Hambantota district in the State Council and became Deputy Minister, Deputy Speaker and Cabinet Minister.

The Defence Secretary added that more than 9 members of the Rajapaksa family have been elected to the legislature with a majority of votes. He said that his father D A Rajapaksa mortgaged their house and properties during the time the country was hit by a malaria epidemic.

The Defence Secretary insisted that the Rajapaksa family has never enriched themselves through politics and they have always been committed to the welfare of the general public.

Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said that he joined the Sri Lanka Army in 1970 as an Officer Cadet and rose to be Lieutenant Colonel at the time of retirement in 1991.

He said he has made a contribution to almost all key operations that were launched to eradicate terrorism in the country, during his unblemished 20 year career.

Senior Counsel Ali Sabry instructed by Sanath Wijewardena appeared for the complainant while M A Sumanthiran PC with counsel Viran Corea appeared for the defendants.

Further hearing was put off for September 11 and 31.

Sri Lanka Security News | Online edition of Daily News - Lakehouse Newspapers
 
The Defence Secretary said that India is the only country which could interfere with Sri Lanka militarily due to its close proximity to Sri Lanka.

That says all.
 
The Defence Secretary said that India is the only country which could interfere with Sri Lanka militarily due to its close proximity to Sri Lanka.

That says all.

Indian support Tamil militant groups

Due to various geo-political reasons, from August 1983 to May 1987, India, through its intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), provided arms, training and monetary support to 6 Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups including LTTE. During that period, 32 camps were set up all over India to train these militants.

495 LTTE militants, including 90 women were trained in 10 batches. First batch of Tigers were trained in Establishment 22 based in Chakrata, Uttarakhand. Second batch including LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman was trained in Himachal Pradesh. Prabakaran himself visited the first and the second batch of Tamil Tigers to see them training. 8 other batches of LTTE were trained in Tamil Nadu. Ironically, Thenmozhi Rajaratnam alias Dhanu, who carried out the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and Sivarasan - the key conspirator were among the militants trained by RAW, in Nainital, South India.

In April 1984, the LTTE formally joined a common militant front, the Eelam National Liberation Front (ENLF), a union between LTTE, the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS), the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF).


IPKF period

In 1987 India intervened directly in the conflict for the first time after the Sri Lankan government attempted to regain control of the northern Jaffna region by means of an economic blockade and military assaults, India supplied food and medicine by air and sea. After subsequent negotiations, India and Sri Lanka entered into an agreement. The peace accord assigned a certain degree of regional autonomy in the Tamil areas with Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) controlling the regional council and called for the Tamil militant groups to lay down their arms. Further India was to send a peacekeeping force, named the IPKF to Sri Lanka to enforce the disarmament and to watch over the regional council.

Even though the accord was signed between the governments of Sri Lanka and India, with the Tamil Tigers and other Tamil militant groups not having a role in the signing of the accord, most Tamil militant groups accepted this agreement, the LTTE rejected the accord because they opposed the candidate, who belonged to another militant group named Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), for chief administrative officer of the merged Northern and Eastern provinces. Instead the LTTE named three other candidates for the position. The candidates proposed by the LTTE were rejected by India. The LTTE subsequently refused to hand over their weapons to the IPKF.

The result was that the LTTE now found itself engaged in military conflict with the Indian Army, and launched their first attack on an Indian army rations truck on October 8, killing five Indian para-commandos who were on board by strapping burning tires around their necks. The government of India then decided that the IPKF should disarm the LTTE by force, and the Indian Army launched number of assaults on the LTTE, including a month-long campaign dubbed Operation Pawan to win control of the Jaffna peninsula from the LTTE. When the IPKF engaged the LTTE, the then president of Sri Lanka, The conflict between the LTTE and the Indian Army left over 1,000 Indian soldiers dead.


Indian policy change

The first country to ban the LTTE was its former ally, India. The Indian change of policy came gradually, starting with the IPKF-LTTE conflict, and culminating with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. India opposes the new state Tamil Eelam that LTTE wants to establish, saying that it would lead to Tamil Nadu's separation from India though the leaders of Tamil Nadu are opposing it.
 

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