‘Tamil issue can be taken up after truce is scrapped’

By IANS

Colombo : Sri Lanka’s Secretary of Defence Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has said that the government will begin addressing the issues faced by the minority Tamils after the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) with the Tamil Tigers is scrapped and the terrorist outfit banned.


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“The government can make a fresh start to addressing the Tamils’ grievances once it officially scraps the Ceasefire Agreement signed with the LTTE,” the government-run Daily News quoted Rajapaksa as saying Saturday.

The CFA signed in 2002 is now virtually defunct with an undeclared war going on for the past two years.

“I think the most sensible thing is that we must end this Ceasefire Agreement by officially declaring there is no Ceasefire Agreement and ban the LTTE, since it is a terrorist organization and we are fighting them,” the defence secretary said.

“We should not give solutions to the LTTE, which is a terrorist organization. Solution should be given to the Tamil people,” he stressed.

“Military victories will definitely pave the way for a peaceful solution of the north-east problem as successive governments had failed to combat terrorism though they had genuine political solutions,” Rajapaksa said.

Asked if the LTTE would be given time before a ban was clamped, he said: “It should be given an opportunity to mend its ways.”

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