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Rajapaksa renews offer to hold talks with the Tigers

B. Muralidhar Reddy

President visits Vaharai town captured from the LTTE

DEADLY CATCH: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa (centre) inspects weapons captured by the army from Tamil Tigers, during his visit to Vaharai on Saturday. - PHOTO: AP

COLOMBO: On the eve of 59th Independence Day of Sri Lanka, President Mahinda Rajapaksa flew down to Vaharai town, recently captured by the military from the LTTE, and renewed his conditional offer to hold talks with the Tigers.

A report on the Defence Ministry web site said Mr. Rajapaksa invited the LTTE to renounce violence and sit down for talks for a political solution. "This is a big opportunity for the LTTE to return to the negotiating table. I will offer them a political solution and they should come for talks," he told journalists in Vaharai in the east.

Asked what the Government intended to do if the Tigers did not respond to the call for negotiations, he said, "in that case, we will have to tame them." Mr. Rajapaksa made the last such offer in October and the Tigers dismissed it as a "joke".

Political package

Accompanied by the Army brass, Mr. Rajapaksa said he would offer a political package. "However, they must begin surrendering weapons and come for talks". Mr. Rajapaksa also took the opportunity to visit Sampur town taken from the Tigers by the military in September last year. The Commander-in-Chief said he flew to Vaharai specially to thank the security forces for liberating the Tamil people from the LTTE. "What we have done is to liberate the people from terrorists," Mr. Rajapaksa said. "I am here to thank the troops for their action without causing a single civilian casualty." Mr. Rajapaksa visited a new police station that has been opened and mingled with the soldiers and elite special troops who first entered the town. He said after 2004 tsunami, the people in the area received a large amount of aid but very little rehabilitation was seen here.

In an indirect reference to alleged misuse of funds meant for tsunami by the Tigers, Mr. Rajapaksa said he would like foreign ambassadors to come and see how much aid they had pumped in to the area had benefited the people.

The military said troops were clearing thousands of mines laid by the LTTE and the area will be ready for resettlement in few weeks. The senior army official in the area, Daya Ratnayaka claimed that some people have visited the area for a look at their houses and gone back.

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