'Traitors should be given Capital punishment'
Defence Secretary Rajapaksa says the LTTE rump is
exploring every avenue to avenge Prabhakaran's killing on the banks of
the Nanthikadal lagoon last May.
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says anyone
seeking to undermine Sri Lanka's sovereignty should be treated as a
traitor regardless of his or her position.
It will be a grave blunder on the government's part to
pave the way for the so-called international community to interfere in
Sri Lanka, he says.
The Defence Ministry says that any Sri Lankan
promoting an agenda which is detrimental to the country is nothing but a
traitor who should be ready to face the consequences.
Defence Secretary Rajapaksa told The Island in a brief
interview that traitors deserved capital punishment and no one should
shed crocodile tears over them.
He emphasized that the armed forces had paid a heavy
price to bring the LTTE to its knees last May and nothing could be as
loathsome as producing officers, who had spearheaded the offensive
before an international tribunal.
He said that a recent statement, which had been
attributed to Oxford Chancellor Chris Patten as reported in yesterday's
issue of The Island, underscored the need to be vigilant to external
threats. The last British Governor of Hong Kong is reported having said
that the UN should have intervened politically and diplomatically under
the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in Sri Lanka's campaign
against the LTTE.
Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said that former Army
Commander General Fonseka, in the run-up to January 26 presidential
election, alleged the Army had executed LTTE cadres, who gave themselves
up on the Vanni front. Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said: "Although
Fonseka had subsequently said that the Army did not massacre
surrendering LTTE cadres, though being ordered by me, it paved the way
for international intervention."
Defence Secretary Rajapaksa alleged that those bent on
destabilizing the country would now exploit Fonseka's parliamentary
privileges to fast track their sinister campaign. Now that terrorists no
longer retained a conventional fighting capability, the LTTE rump would
strive to isolate the country, he said. The fastest way to achieve their
goal was to use MP Sarath Fonseka to justify their baseless allegations,
he said. He emphasized that anyone throwing his or her weight behind an
anti-Sri Lanka conspiracy would be considered a traitor and people
should be na‹ve to believe such behavior could be tolerated.
Responding to a query by The Island, the war veteran
said that the conclusion of the war last year had brought a sense of
relief to all communities. Although petty minded politicians may not
realize the ground situation as yet, in the absence of the LTTE factor,
the Opposition would be powerless, he said. The bottom line is that the
Opposition may not have an issue big enough to exploit as a rallying
point except unsubstantiated war crimes charges.
During the war, interested parties, including the
media, had accused the Navy and Air Force, too, of indiscriminate
attacks on civilians and in some instances Indian fishermen. Had they
bothered to follow the media coverage of the war in Afghanistan and
Iraq, they would accept Sri Lanka's extraordinary efforts to minimize
civilian loss of life. He said that even at the height of the war on the
Vanni front, the ICRC was allowed to evacuate the wounded out of LTTE-held
territory. He said that the government could have finished off the LTTE
in a much shorter time if the military ignored the civilian factor.
Courtesy - The island | 
