The Hindu : Ready to meet LTTE's challenge if need be: Fernando

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 22, 2003

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Ready to meet LTTE's challenge if need be: Fernando

By Nirupama Subramaniam

CHENNAI Oct. 21. The Sri Lankan Government is prepared to meet any military challenge from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam if the peace process breaks down, the country's Foreign Minister, Tyronne Fernando, has said.

"The Tigers are doing it. They have increased their cadre enormously. I am not going to say the process is going to break down but I don't think the people will forgive us if we were not ready. Equally, we have been ready for a while and we have to be in a better state of preparedness," he told The Hindu in an interview today.

Mr. Fernando denied the suggestion that there was pessimism about the peace process in his remarks. "I am extremely optimistic that the peace talks will succeed but equally, the LTTE must know that if they do not succeed, everybody will lose. Including them," he said.

He expressed the confidence that if the Tigers returned to war again, the international community would come down heavily on them. Sri Lanka had defied the international mood on terrorism post 9/11 to open peace talks with the Tigers. The Government had given in to several LTTE demands. The talks were unconditional. "They must also be reasonable. We are ready to go halfway. They must also be ready to come halfway."

Pointing to the consensus that prevailed between the two main Sinhala parties on devolution, Mr. Fernando said the LTTE must "grab the opportunity". The Sri Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, and the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, were both for devolution. The people had grown accustomed to the ceasefire and were now prepared to accept a federal solution in exchange for a lasting peace.

"But if the LTTE becomes very difficult about this whole thing, appears to be too demanding and asks for solutions that appear to ultimately end up in a separate state, then the whole thing will be lost again," he said.Mr. Fernando, who was on his way back to Colombo from New Delhi through Chennai, said that Mr. Wickremesinghe had reiterated his Government's commitment to a federal solution at all his meetings with Indian leaders and officials in the last two days.

"You might say this is an internal matter for Sri Lanka but this is a regional question and we fully appreciate India's concerns on this matter.He explained that an agreement "in principle" on a India-Sri Lanka defence pact was to cover training and joint consultations between the top brass and the defence bureaucracy of the two countries but would exclude direct military assistance. "It is not a mutual defence pact," he said.

Mr. Fernando declined to be drawn into a discussion on what assistance Sri Lanka might expect from India if the peace process broke down and the Government and the LTTE returned to war.

Asked to comment on the statement by the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, L.K. Advani, that the extradition of the LTTE chief, Prabakaran, remained a "major issue", Mr. Fernando said: "I heard him saying that on the television, but he did not tell us that."

He said Sri Lanka had embarked on the peace process with Mr. Prabakaran only after obtaining India's permission. "The Prime Minister and I came here in December 2001. We informed the Indian Government and got their blessings, and even Sonia Gandhi. We have been at this for the last 18 months. So extradition is another bridge we can cross only when we come to that," he said.

He said the two countries were preparing to sign an extensive economic co-operation pact by next March. The agreement would provide incentives for increased investment and co-operation in aviation, tourism, trade and the service sector.

Mr. Fernando, who has said he is a contender for the post of Secretary-General of the United Nations when it falls vacant in 2007, said the Sri Lankan delegation had discussed his nomination with the Indian side. "We don't expect a yes or a no straightaway. India's support will be vital to us." Earlier this month, the Sri Lankan Cabinet had endorsed his nomination.

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