Minister Champika Ranawaka

Minister of Environment and Jathika Hela Urumaya frontliner, Champika Ranawaka places confidence in the military exercises and an imminent victory over the LTTE, to turn Tamil support towards the Rajapaksa Presidency at an upcoming general election. He maintains that in an environment that will wipe out ‘Tamil chauvinism’ there is no necessity for any political solutions, believing development to be the key to issues of terrorism.

Q:Pressure against the war from South India is mounting rapidly. How do you view the threat placed before Delhi by Karunanidhi, in view of the upcoming elections?

It is none other than India’s shortsighted political interferences that brought the problem of LTTE this far. India saw Sri Lanka with an economic potential to prosper far beyond it could with a closed economy in the 70’s and helped LTTE. But now the situation and how they view the ground realities have changed drastically. The economic power balance has turned towards regional concerns and with India becoming part of that very power block their concerns have changed. Many in India now see us as an opportunity rather than a threat.

It is only realistic that India stops seeing the problem from Karunanidhi’s eyes; which always saw Sri Lanka as a country to be invaded. I hope they understand the repercussions of taking such an approach. South India has no moral right to criticize the humanitarian exercises adopted by the government when it will only help liberate the Tamil people trapped under Prabakaran’s clutches.

Prabakaran is the only man who has killed an Indian leader; even Pakistan hasn’t attempted something like that. The Tamils have no homeland in Sri Lanka, it’s only in India. It is in India’s hands if they want to interfere in the military exercise now, but nothing can stop this government’s path to military victory over the LTTE, whatever obstacle is laid on our path.

Q:But the plight of the people trapped in the Wanni must be a serious concern for you?

Prabakaran took 400,000 Tamils to Jaffna and kept them trapped as a human shield in this same manner in 1995. But the moment they could they came back to the areas under government control. Even in Vakare or Mutur this time around too, the moment they had a chance they all came to the safety of the government troops. History denies these claims of a civilian plight, when we have settled the issue of the displaced in the East within months when the US is still struggling in Sudan. We will hold the next general election in a war free environment where parties like the Tamil National Alliance will not have the chance of coming to Parliament using the gun. That Tamil chauvinism will be totally wiped out by the next general election.

Q:Is it safe to assume that a purely military solution will suffice without a viable political negotiation on the ground?

There is neither political nor military solutions looked at. These are mere rhetoric of old paradigms that hold absolutely no strength anymore. All that we are looking at as a solution is the 3D solution which has proven successful in the East already. Democracy which entails the will of the majority is all that needs to be concentrated on now. The only difference is that once the LTTE is destroyed no solution can be forced upon us by anyone. There is a difference in the polity of Sri Lanka today. The presumptions of homelands are all over. Democracy will be the only winner at the next general election. The significance of that election will be that President Rajapaksa will win with not only a Sinhala majority but with one that encapsulates both Tamil and Muslim votes as well.

Q:How weak is the LTTE in your opinion at this point?

The LTTE is now at a point when they are vulnerable to many more breakaways. Their boasts have all been silenced now. They are no better than any weak organization with no real power now. Politically they are totally broken and militarily too they are stuck in a place they have never been in the history of this war. This time around it is Gen. Sarath Fonseka who decides the path the war will take. With every other government it was Prabakaran who took the decisions.

Q: The Army Commander has continued to receive criticism for a statement made to the international media on the rights of the majority. Do you think it was correct for him to have made that statement?

All he said was that the Sinhalese as the majority community in the country must enjoy the rights that are its due. Political traitors of certain Muslim parties and Tamil parties can’t afford to question his right to make that statement. Having betrayed the rights of the minority communities to Prabakaran how can the Muslim and Tamil parties question when they are yet to place the truth about the plight of their own communities before the world? The troops that are led by Gen. Fonseka are suffering and paying for the historic crimes committed by these misguided politicians. The Defence Secretary as a former military man and the general has every right to speak of majority rights.

The Sinhalese are the only organic race of Sri Lanka. Other communities are all visitors to the country, whose arrival was never challenged out of the compassion of Buddhists. But they must not take this compassion for granted. The Muslims are here because our kings let them trade here and the Tamils because they were allowed to take refuge when the Moguls were invading them in India. What is happening today is pure ingratitude on the part of these visitors.

Q:But your development models in the East are being challenged on grounds of a Sinhalisation process.

A These are all blatant lies. The facts belie all these claims. In a 1982 census the Sinhalese numbered 85000 in the East, with 89000 Tamils and 75000 Muslims. In 2007 the numbers stood at 84000, 91000 and 151,000 respectively. Is this the Sinhalisation they speak about?  In 1981 there were 2500 Sinhalese in Batticaloa, today there are only 600. What is the basis for this Sinhalisation?

Q:The government is charged with having a hand in Gen. Janaka Perera’s killing.

This is absolutely untrue. We are very sad about his death. He should never have joined UNP politics, when that was clearly against what he fought against as a military officer. He was clearly killed by the LTTE. There are no doubts on that count. UNP is too caught in the LTTE trap to talk against the LTTE.

Q:Was it a political blunder to bring Karuna to Parliament as being criticized as such?

When Vinayagamurthi Muurlitharan Col. Karuna wanted to breakaway from the LTTE with 6000 of his cadres the then government refused to help him. In fact they worked in a way to facilitate the elimination of many of his cadres by the LTTE. Even his brother was killed by the LTTE around that time. But he has been able to strategically withstand all that and join the democratic process today. We only hope that LTTE leaders like Soosai and Jeyam will also follow on this path.

Q: Even if that means that Karuna remains armed and continue to have child cadres?

No. If he has child cadres then the government should take necessary action against that. He has however no reason to be armed because he is under the protection of the Sri Lankan troops. Ranil Wickramasinghe took arms from the State for his protection in 1988, when did he return them? The JVP and the many Left groups who also took for protection are yet to handover arms. If democracy is good for Ranil Wickramasinghe and JVP why must it be denied Karuna?

Q:But Amnesty International feels that the government should commence investigations against Karuna for crimes against humanity?

Crimes against humanity has a different definition. Those done on political grounds can’t fall within that. Any massacres carried out on political grounds are seen differently and need more evidence to prove. Till the judicial system in Sri Lanka has the capacity to look at those crimes they will have to be treated as political actions.

Q:How do you view the concerns raised by the international community in general; where you claim there is a considerable drop?

The main reason for that drop in criticism from elsewhere is because they understand the success of the three D approach we have taken. Our focus is on Demilitarization, democratization and development, which has worked over a very short period of time. This was something that even the US is struggling to do in Afghanistan and Iraq. The fact remains that the West anyway has no time to worry about us when their own issues of an economic recession has more implications to them than the LTTE.

Anyway the main point here is that the time that the Brown Sahibs ruled the country is over now. We now deal with issues from a Sri Lankan angle. We don’t care about their pressures anyway. Even economically there is no threat as made out to be. That hegemony will go with the end of the economic recession in the West this time around. There will be a new world order at the end of it.

Q:But shouldn’t we be worried about a loss in GSP for instance?

Yes, but again that too is not as bad as made out to be. I personally feel that we don’t need the GSP anyway. All it will do is kill the competitiveness in the market. The same fear was brought out with the US Garment quota. What happened at the end of that? Competitiveness grew. That is the way we can become a strong economy. No one can stop our path towards development starting from the Eastern province.