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Futile to hold talks with LTTE: Rajapaksa

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday maintained that it is futile to hold talks with the LTTE as long as it is militarily not crushed.

In a hard-hitting speech at a public rally in Matara town in the south on the occasion of the third anniversary of the tsunami, Mr. Rajapaksa said, “We are for a political settlement. But there is no point in talking about a political settlement without first defeating terrorism”.

He said the LTTE is not interested in negotiations and must be made to realise that problems cannot be solved through the barrel of a gun. He maintained that the Tigers must be forced to lay down arms.

He talked about the “victories” of the military over the LTTE since July 2006 and hoped to build on them. “Like we overcame the tsunami tragedy, we will face the threat of terrorism and overcome it soon,” he said.

Mr. Rajapaksa observed two minutes of silence at 9:25 a.m. to coincide with the first tsunami waves that killed 31,000 and displaced a million people.

He declared open the new Manama Bridge destroyed by the tsunami and constructed with a grant worth $7 million provided by the government of Korea.

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