Secretary of Defense Gotabhaya Rajapaksa told state owned Independent Television Network that the professionalism of the Sri Lankan security forces has won widespread praise across the world and the Indian Defense Secretary M.K. Narayan called the army commander Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka the best army commander in the world for his role against capturing back LTTE occupied areas in the North and the Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka.
“After crushing the Malaysian terrorism in the 1950’s this the first time any terrorism has been defeated and the Indonesian leaders whom I met during my recent visit told me that Sri Lanka has given an important message to the world regarding how to deal with terrorism,” Rajapaksa told a prime time TV interview that had been co-broadcast by several other TV channels including certain privately owned ones like the Derana, nation wide.
He said when he visited Israel recently he was accompanied by the Director General of the Sri Lanka Navy and the Commander of the Navy of Israel requested thirty minutes with our Naval official to ask him how Sri Lanka has minimized the attacks by LTTE’s suicide boats.
The ability of the accuracy of the bombing targets of the Sri Lankan Airforce avoiding minimum collateral damage to the civilians has been highly praised, he said. While in Sri Lanka the “Zero civil casualties” policy has been extremely successful , during the the recent Israel –Palestenian clash in Gaza there had been 700 civilans killed. “During recent clashes in Sri Lanka civilian deaths could be counted on one’s fingers,” he said. He said certain pro-LTTE media outlets have been showing pictures of the past as civilian casualties, fraudulently.
He said always civilian casualties are caused by indirect fire in wars but our air men have become so brilliant in hitting the targets accurately. He referred to the recent video clips shown on the TV indicating how Sri Lankan pilots hit two artillery guns accurately while they were being transported to be hidden in a Mulaithivu jungle. In the same way pilots destroyed Sea Tiger boats from the air recently , Rajapaksa said.
Rajapaksa said the capturing of LTTE occupied land in the Northern Province was predominantly an army battle. He said these achievements would never have been won without the experience , the knowledge, the bravery and heroism of Lieutenant General Sarath fonseka. He said he was proud of the army commander for doing such a tough job. The constant advise of the West was that Sri Lanka cannot afford to win such a war since the LTTE was so powerful. If we could have done such a difficult task, Rajapaksa said , doing anything else as a nation , should be a very easy task.
Reminding that all sorts of pressures from outside as well from inside was brought on the President Mahinda Rajapaksa not to get involved in the Mavil Aru incident. The people said Prabhakaran was brilliant mind in war tactics and strategy and it should be resolved amicably. But Rajapaksa said our army commander very well knew Prabhakaran was not ready for any settlement.
Pointing out another reason why Sri Lanka won in the fourth Eelam War Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said Army Commander used tactics and strategy against the LTTE which Prabhakaran could not figure out how to react. He said the army commander used soldiers in small groups in attacking the enemy. He had a wider frontage in dealing with the enemy , to attack from several places at the same time, Rajapaksa said. The army commander also used special forces and commando units in attacking the LTTE, the Secretary of Defense said.
He said , our navy did not have means of going into the deep blue sea to face the enemy and destroy the weapons carrying ships. Showing special methods, he said our navy went to 1800 nautical miles to meet the enemy in the deep sea and have destroyed 10 floating ware houses of the LTTE arms since 2007 putting them into very difficult situation. The navy also started using smaller boats to face the challenge of the suicide boats of the Sea Tigers, Rajapaksa said.
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said sinc e 2006 the government had recruited 50,000 new personnel to the army, navy, airforce, special task force , police and civil defence force increasing the strength of these forces by 40 percent. The majority have been recruited to the army , he said. He said the foreigners advised that we could not afford to face a sustained war and there was no chance of winning. Their advise was that the LTTE , using their suicide bombers destroy the rest of the country while this war was being conducted. But the police did an excellent job in conducting thorough investigations and destroyed many of the cells LTTE established all over the country. People even did not know the excellent work the police was doing in this task.
He said this time all three armed forces, the police, and the civil defence force focused on one single task of destroying and defeating the LTTE. All of them were working hard on one single goal which made the task easier , Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said. No body was having two minds on that, he insisted.
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said , every month the government has been recruiting an average of 5000 people. During last December alone the government recruited 4000 to the army Rajapaksa said.
Replying to the criticism that this was purely a military victory and political leadership was not necessary and no political leader could take praise for it Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said the political leadership provided by President Rajapaksa was an essential ingredient in this victory. He said in any country , it is the political leadership that provided to the army that brings ultimate peace. The people who say the political leadership is not essential are people who want to conceal the quality of the leadership President Mahinda Rajapaksa provided .He said if the political leadership did not provide the army what they needed for the war the army would have gone nowhere.
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said President Mahinda Rajapaksa always stood by the armed forces when international pressure has been brought against various people not to sell weapons to Sri Lanka. For instance, He said to put the country out of such precarious situations President Mahinda Rajapaksa has had four telephone conversations with the President of China, and eight telephone conversations with the President of Pakistan during the war.
He said his main reason for the war to succeed was the dedication of the soldiers and their heroism . It was not the weapons provided to the soldiers that won the war but the man behind the weapons, he said. A clear political and military leadership was provided to the soldiers to carry on with their task, he said. He said the military leadership had more than three decades of experience in dealing with the terrorists from their junior officer days. He said in our military history no body else had such dedication and experience to defeat the LTTE. He said the families of soldiers demonstrated a similar heroism.
Replying questions about the fate of Prabhakaran Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said LTTE being a Fascist organization has been always linked to one individual called Prabhakaran. He was so concerned being the sole leader of all Tamils, leaders of TELO, EPRLF, PLOTE etc., he thought, should be physically eliminated . He even suspected his second in command and also killed him. So, in this war Rajapaksa said, arresting Prabhakaran is an important task. Gotabhaya said, if he had not already escaped he must be holed up in the Mulativu jungles. If he is still there, said the Defense Secretary, arresting him could be done during a short period of time. During a former battle, decades ago, when he was cornered in Velvetiturai, he was contemplating on committing suicide but in the first instance he got, changed his mind and escaped to Mulativu jungle. Once again , he could be expected to run away to somewhere rather than committing suicide, Rajapaksa said. But he said, Mulaitivu has been surrounded from all sides.
Rajapaksa said both pro- LTTE elements as well as Prabhakaran want to revitalize the LTTE and carry on with their programs. He said the army is not without a plan to face that and the army had expected to combat such a situation and not allow so precious a peace snatched out of the hands of the nation.
Rajapaksa said at the time of the people’s verdict in December 2005 part of Sri Lanka was governed by a gang of armed men running banks, police and law courts in their areas in the Eastern and Northern Provinces. Even national telephone directories of the nation carried the phone numbers of these illegal institutions. The public opinion was against this and the UNP government had systematically suppressed that. If Mahinda Rajapaksa did not come to power very soon the birth of two nations from the island of Sri Lanka was inevitable. Terrorists were maintaining their garrisons in that part of the country and they could not be visited by us. Under such circumstances this government liberated the Eastern Province which was under the jack boot of Prabhakaran.
He said when the army later captured Kilinochchi, the reaction of the LTTE was that the army captured a deserted town. The LTTE strongholds fell one by one. By today they had been fully chased out from Jaffna peninsula.
He said , long ago , a mere capture of a place like Mankulam would have been the subject for every one to brag about for months. But he said the LTTE strongholds fell so rapidly the fall of Oddusudan or Mankulam did not win a decent headline in the newspaper as so many fell at the same time. When the LTTE fell from Thoppigala in the Eastern Province the outfit called it a tactical withdrawal. When they fell at Kilinochchi they used the same statement. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa wondered whether their next “tactical withdrawal’ is going to end up in the sea.
The Defense Secretary said similar statements are being used by certain political party in the South too. He said in the ancient times too, Sri Lanka had the misfortune of having such traitors who betrayed the country. Rajapaksa said history in the ancient times recorded proudly about heroes who fought for our country like the soldiers and not traitors who refuse to see the truth and working for a personal gain.
During the capture of the Eastern Province, Rajapaksa said the army was able to catch tons of weapons allowed to be smuggled into the country by the UNP government. He said both in the Eastern Province and the Northern Province the security forces fought very hard and neither place was a walk over as some people try to describe.
The Defence Secretary said whe Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike handed over the country to J.R. jayewardene’s UNP in 1977 nobody had died due to the LTTE trouble. 22,000 Sinhalese people lived in Jaffna. Muslims and Sinhalese lived in Jaffna and Kilinochchi. There was even a Sinhala Mahaa Vidyalaya in the northern town. But by 1994 there were numerous LTTE garrisons in the North. In 1994 7174 of the police and the army had died in Jaffna. He said today, Mangala Samaraweera is lamenting about the deaths in the army But during during 2000 when Mangala Samaraweera remained a powerful Minister, for an year an average about 2000 died an year. Rajapaksa asked what did Samaraweera do to stop those deaths. He said during the last three years he is lamenting about only 3703 people had died. He said, the army would soon liberate the the whole Northern Province and asked Samaraweera not to deceive the people.
Speaking about the media , Rajapaksa said, he always confronted the editors and tried to tell them when utterly inaccurate information is published aginst the security forces. He said if any journalist is in custody it is not because the person is a journalist but a terrorism related inquiry has led the security services to that person Not only journalists but ever policemen and army men have been arrested relation to terrorist activities. That does not mean the security forces are angry with the police or the army.When a delivery man of the Udayan newspaper is arrested in connection of terrorism, some carry placards saying he is a journalist.
Commenting on Sirasa TV he said when a LTTE terrorist bomb was set in a bus and when it was discovered in time not injuring anybody, Sirasa started broadcasting old library shots of the injured.When Kilinochchi fell Sirasa only showed a corpse. He said there was no motive for the government to set fire to the Sirasa because the government lacked any motive. He alleged after Kilinochchi fell, because they supported the LTTE and now wanted public sympathy and win a fraudulent insurance claim the fire in the station was an inside job. He said the police is gathering evidence into that affect currently. If there was damage how did the station started broadcasting live after two hours, following the incident.. In the same manner, he alleged , they had collected insurance claims in the year 2000. He said Sirasa represented the interests of the LTTE.
The Secretary of Defence said some have alleged that the intelligence men of the army were responsible for the killing of the journalist recently. He said , once, just after the UNP came to power , there had been an attempt to destroy the intelligence men of the army and betray them to the LTTE. Using a Sinhala epithet , Rajapksa said , why should the intelligence men waste their time killing a rat snake (Garandi) when they were engaged in a more important job of destroying the LTTE.
Rajapaksa said Sri Lanka today is enjoying the same close friendship with India the country had enjoyed during the time of Indira Gandhi and Sirima Bandaranaike or even better. While maintaining and protecting our own sovereignty Rajapaksa said we must also appreciate the security of the neighbour and area superpower. He said under President Rajapaksa the country is benefiting by its close friendship with SAARC countries, Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Asked whether under Asif Al Saldari the friendship of Pakistan would affect, Rajapaksa said, under whatever change of governments both in Sri Lanka or Pakistan , Pakistan would always protect Sri Lanka’s sovereignty .
Commenting on NGO’s, he said despite the millions they spent, except the LTTE buildings, the NGO’s had brought no development to Kilinochchi.
He said even now those LTTE cadres who would down their weapons should be rehabilitated and trained in some vocation . Buthe said , no LTTE leader should be pardoned like that. They should be prosecuted and punished if proven guilty, he said. Rajapaksa said, he cannot oppose whatever decision the President takes about Prabhakaran by handing him over to India. But he had done so much damage to Sri Lanka , Rajapaksa said, he must be hanged for the crimes he had committed against Sri Lanka if the security forces happen to catch him.
