COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that the solution to the Tamil problem lies in establishing village-level democratic institutions rather than ethnicity-based units such as the Provincial Councils.
“I am certain that the people in the North and East could stand on their own feet through a solution wrought by devolving powers to the villages and empowering them in the entire country,” the President said in his Independence Day speech in Kandy on Thursday.
“The people of the North and East suffered for 30 years without their democratic rights. I was able to grant them democracy. That is the greatest victory we have achieved. Future progress would not lie in the strengthening of divisive ethnic politics,” he asserted.
Rajapaksa lauds India, forgets Pak: He went on to laud his “close ties” with India, China and Japan, but forgot to mention Pakistan, which had consistently supplied arms to fight the LTTE.
“You all are aware that our foreign policy is independent and non-aligned. It is no secret that we have maintained close friendly relationships with our neighbours such as India, China, Japan and others,” he said.
Presumably, Pakistan was in the category “others”.
The President went on to say: “I implore the separatist forces and local and international conspirators not to underestimate our motherland and the people of this nation. The world should have a correct opinion about us.”
There’ll be no discrimination, Rajapaksa assures Tamils: Breaking into Tamil during his oration, Rajapaksa urged Tamils not to think of themselves as a minority.
Speaking from the ramparts of the fortress-like Temple of the Buddha’s Tooth in the island’s ancient capital, Rajapaksa said: “Thirty years of terrorism is now over. We are celebrating our independence in such an atmosphere for the first time. Anyone can go anywhere freely. That is very important.”
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