By IANS
Colombo : Sri Lankan opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has said the only beneficiaries of the government’s abrogation of the 2002 ceasefire agreement would be the Tamil Tigers.
In a statement issued on behalf of the United National Party (UNP) Sunday, Wickremesinghe said the action had cost Sri Lanka international support.
The international safety net his government had put in place to check the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had been taken off.
Wickremesinghe said that the internationally backed truce had given the LTTE nightmares because it had guaranteed Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Article 1.3 of the agreement had said the country’s armed forces had the sole authority to safeguard the country, thus de-legitimising the LTTE’s claim to have its own armed forces to safeguard a part of the island of Sri Lanka under its control.
The international community’s stepped up role in the peace process was also giving the LTTE jitters as it feared it might not be able to face world pressure.
“On numerous occasions, the LTTE admitted that as a result of the peace accord, they were caught in an international safety net,” Wickremesinghe said.
By unilaterally annulling the pact, the government and not the LTTE lost international support; Colombo and not the LTTE, would be subjected to international pressures, he feared.
“Today, Sri Lanka’s international credibility is in tatters. We will no longer get international support. Even those who advocated Sri Lanka’s cause in friendly countries will be compromised by this act. Donor assistance will be reduced, new investors will be scared to invest in a war zone (and) military assistance will abate.”
Defending his decision to sign the agreement as prime minister of Sri Lanka in February 2002, he said an immediate restoration of peace was necessitated by the severe military reverses which the Sri Lankan armed forced had suffered in 2000; the havoc wrought by the attack on the Colombo airport and airbase in 2001; the crippling of the Colombo port; and the severe downturn in the economy which recorded negative growth in 2001.