New Delhi must aid peace process - President

by P K Balachandran (Hindustan Times)

PRESIDENT Mahinda Rajapakse, who begins a four-day visit to India on December 27, will ask New Delhi to become a co-chair of the Tokyo conference so that it can "influence" the international community to push forward the peace process.

Speaking to representatives of the Indian media on Wednesday, Rajapakse said it was time the Co-chairs took the peace process forward, and by becoming a co-chair, India could exert "influence" on them. In the Sri Lankan peace process, the international community is represented by the co-chairs of the 2003 Tokyo Aid Lanka conference - the United States, the European Union, Japan and Norway.

"India must get involved in the peace process, at least give its blessings to it. India is our immediate neighbour and we must work closely with it. I mentioned this in my very first policy statement," Rajapakse said.

He said that in his view, peace talks with the LTTE should be held in an Asian country and not Oslo, as the LTTE had been demanding. He pointed out that Japan had offered to be the venue and Sri Lanka had accepted the proposal.

The President was happy that an Indian representative had met the co-chairs after their meeting in Brussels on December 19. "This shows that India is taking more interest now," he remarked.

Asked what he wanted India to do, apart from joining as a co-chair, Rajapakse said India could help develop the North-East.

On the possibility of discussing a defence cooperation agreement with India and getting Indian help for repairing and modernising the Palaly Air Force base in Jaffna, the President said that these matters would not be taken up in his talks with Indian leaders.

The controversial Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project in the Palk Straits would also not be taken up, he added.

On when he expected talks with the LTTE to begin, Rajapakse said: "I am ready when Prabhakaran is ready."

Asked to spell out what he could offer the LTTE at the talks, the President said he would propose "maximum devolution possible under a unitary state."

He also said that he would look into the various devolution models in Sri Lanka's neighbourhood, especially how the Indian system of devolution had been working.

Asked about the recent cases of violence in the North-East, in which many Sri Lankan soldiers and Tamil civilians were killed, Rajapakse said while the army had been very restrained, the LTTE had been violating the ceasefire agreement.

On the international community's charge that his Government had not disarmed and removed anti-LTTE Tamil paramilitary groups in the northeast, as per the terms of its ceasefire with the Tigers, Rajapakse said the paramilitaries had been removed and the current fighting was between the Karuna group, a breakaway LTTE group, and the Tigers.