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Sarath Fonseka , the best Army
Commander in the world, says Indian Defense Secretary
By Walter Jayawardhana
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.
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