CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

FOREIGN MINISTER TELLS INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY THAT LTTE SHOULD BE DEALT IN A MANNER FIT FOR TERRORISTS IN A BBC INTERVIEW

By Walter Jayawardhana

The reckless killing of a senior politician who represented a minority Tamil Christian community together with five athletes at a district marathon with a coach of national eminence by a walking bomb has once again drawn the attention to the fact that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has to be dealt with in a manner terrorists deserve, Foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama told the BBC in Cairo.

He said he would draw the attention of the international community to this unmistakable fact once again.

Speaking about his assassinated cabinet colleague, who died instantly during the bomb
ignited by a LTTE suicide bomber when he was flagging off some marathon runners Bogollagama said, “In fact this is a very sad day. Once again the LTTE has shown their terrorist characteristic by taking one of our Ministers. Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was not only a senior politician in the country; he was representing the minority (Tamil) community in Sri Lanka very much in the government.
“We have experienced this in the past year,” said Bogollagama, “we have lost Presidents, we have lost Foreign Ministers, and we have lost others in this struggle. At the same time LTTE has to be dealt accordingly and this is why I am calling upon international community to look at this incident once again.”

The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister was making obvious references to the assassinations of Laxman Kadirgamar, the island nation’s first Tamil Foreign Minister and the former President Ranasinghe who died at the hands of LTTE killers. Ironically Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was the first Christian Tamil tipped to be the Prime Minister of the country and at the time of his death was the Leader of the House.

In his statement Bogollagama further told the BBC, “He came from the minority community and also was a devoted catholic. The time of this incident where LTTE suicide bomber took on his life resulting in several other deaths was a sports event that’s once again taking away 5 athletes who were participating at this marathon and an additionally another coach was of national eminence.

This feature shows that LTTE has no boundaries and no rationale in taking up their targets. Here, there were civilians and it was at a time when the Tamils and the Sinhalese are jointly getting ready to celebrate the New Year,” that they took Fernandopulle’s life.

Replying to the BBC correspondent who asked what measures had been taken to stop the violence taking place in Sri Lanka the minister said, “In fact that is where we have proposed the constitutional process along with the democracy to be restored in the areas that were hitherto held by the LTTE (fascism). In fact late Jeyaraj Fernandopulle as Minister and member of the Peoples Alliance (PA) government was seen in Trincomalee recently at the time of handing over the nomination papers where he was leading the campaign in the Trincomalee district in support of the PA candidacy.

This is a show at a time when they have entered into where democracy is to be once again restored in the areas that were hitherto held by LTTE, how the LTTE frustration is trying to take off the target and the politicians in the country. This (assassination) is not going to deter the efforts of the government.

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