Armed with 5R concept, Lanka overcomes post-war challenges
Defence seminar showcases country’s rapid progress, especially in the north, after defeat of LTTE
At a three-day defence seminar organised by the Army, Sri Lanka showcased its post-war achievements in the past three years with the focus being on five ‘R’s -- reconstruction, resettlement, rehabilitation, reintegration and reconciliation.
The Defence Seminar 2012, the second since the defeat of the LTTE in May 2009, had top military officials and politicians from more than 40 countries in attendance. Among them were Pakistan’s Defence Secretary Lieutenant General (Retd) Asif Yasin Malik, the Maldives National Defence Force chief Major General Ahmed Shiyam and Brunei's Royal Land Forces Commander Brigadier-General Dato Seri Pahlawan Haji Yussof bin Haji Abd Rahman.
One of the highlights of the seminar was the address by India’s Janatha Party leader Subramaniam Swamy, a vociferous critic of the LTTE. He told the seminar that much had improved in Sri Lanka since the formal end of the violent strife on that historic date of May 19, 2009.
“Today, Tamil families no more fear the so-called Tigers’ forced recruitment of their children, disruption of their education, and their various brutalisation and abuses. The extortion of funds from civilians to finance terrorist operations of the LTTE has also ended. Normalcy in daily life has returned after three decades,” he said.
Dr. Swamy said the credit for this victory over terrorism naturally must belong to the political leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his ability to inspire the armed forces to fight on and die for the cause.
“The people of India recognise this as a contribution to our national security and fit for being honoured by India’s highest award in the future.
“The people in India feel kinship with Sri Lankans, emotionally, historically, religiously, linguistically and also for the benefit of our mutual national security. As recent genetic research reveals, Indians and Sri Lankans have the same DNA.
“Thus, the Indian people do not necessarily agree with our government on every decision it takes against the interests of Sri Lanka on political compulsions, which is not unusual in a democracy,” he said, claiming that a majority of the Indians were against the central government’s decision to support the USbacked resolution against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council in March this year.
Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa who delivered the key note address said Sri Lanka had become one of the most peaceful and stable countries in the world since the end of the war and gave detailed accounts of how the country had moved forward on several fronts to normalise the lives of those affected by the long-drawn-out war.
He said that when the war ended, some 295,873 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) were left in the care of the Government which also had to deal with de-mining in more than five thousand square kilometers of the former war zone.
By the end of June 2012, some 469,275 antipersonnel mines, 1,399 anti-tank mines, and 388,963 unexploded ordnance devices had been recovered with the Sri Lanka Army playing the lead role in the demining process.
He said some 10,965 LTTE cadres who had surrendered to the security forces had been reintegrated into society and there was complete freedom of movement for all people in the North. Since July 2011, more than 51,400 foreign passport holders from over 100 countries have visited Sri Lanka and travelled to the North, with some 31,500 people visiting the area this year alone, he said.
External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris who spoke on the opening day of the seminar said that an economic onslaught was being led against Sri Lanka in a campaign spearheaded by some sections of the diaspora – an unyielding group that did not accept the irreversibility of the defeat of the LTTE. These sections of the diaspora were trying to rekindle the embers of terrorism, he said, describing their actions as moves to stop the booming post-conflict economic growth in the north.
“There is a 22 per cent growth rate in the north as opposed to the 9 per cent growth rate in the country,” he pointed out.
Also hitting out against the anti-Sri Lanka diaspora was Planation Industries Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, who is also the Government’s Special Envoy for Human Rights. He spoke on the campaign of disinformation and pressure exerted by the so-called “anti-Sri Lanka Diaspora’ on the host countries to question the Sri Lankan Government’s record.
“We call on those countries who express an interest in reconciliation in Sri Lanka to focus on the activities of these groups which are aimed at creating instability and undermining reconciliation,” the minister said, adding that the Government too was taking steps to engage with these groups and wean them away from the defeated LTTE’s agenda of separatism and terrorism.