From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon Mar 01 2010 - 08:33:07 EST
http://www.dailymirror.lk/print/index.php/news/front-page-news/4841.html Sri
Lanka-Eritrea ties break-down
Monday, 01 March 2010 00:00
*By Dianne Silva *
The government’s diplomatic ties with Eritrea broke down due to certain
newspaper reports, according to Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
“It came out in the papers and now Eritrea has completely shut down
everything; they don’t talk to us and they completely cut us off,” the
Secretary told Daily Mirror.
Further, all plans to establish a Sri Lankan consulate in Eritrea, in order
to monitor various LTTE elements within that country, have also failed.
“There were plans to open a consulate there; but even that they refused,”
the Defense Secretary said.
He said that the exposure of defense matters via the media was counter
productive, in gathering information.
We had very bad experiences with Eritrea. We know that there are certain
assets that belong to the LTTE; but because it came out in a newspaper they
refused to cooperate with us. Now we are in the process of redeveloping our
ties with them, from scratch,” Rajapaksa said.
The Secretary of Defense made these statements in response to the questions
of whether elements of the LTTE were trying to regroup and what intelligence
was being gathered through Kumaran Pathmanadan (KP), who was the mastermind
of the LTTE’s international network.
Rajapaksa noted that a number of countries were unaware that operations
taking place within their boundaries were fueling the interests of the LTTE.
“There are different businesses the LTTE was running and for those countries
these were legitimate business. Therefore if we had not given the
information these governments would not know; that these are LTTE
businesses,” he said.
However he claimed that Western countries were affronted if the Sri Lankan
government made public the fact that such elements were operating within
their borders.
“Naming countries is of no use, because when we name the country those
countries don’t like it. Those countries don’t want to know that certain
LTTE groups were operating within their borders and we had a very bad
experience with Eritrea,” he said.
When asked about confronting LTTE elements internationally the Secretary
explained that the Western block was not always cooperative.
“With most countries it is easy but with the Western countries it is very
difficult because there is a very big pro-LTTE Tamil Diaspora and we don’t
get much cooperation from Western countries; especially the European
countries. So without their cooperation it is very difficult to catch these
people.”
He noted that the LTTE was trying to legitimize itself in order to deceive
certain governments and gain their support.
“Therefore what the LTTE could not achieve through military means they would
try to achieve through other means with the help of these governments. And
this is why they are trying to establish this Transnational Government of
Tamil Elam,” he said.
He conceded however that a large majority of the Diaspora was hoping for
reconciliation within the island.
“But what I see is that although there is a big Tamil Diaspora, the majority
of them are moderates and don’t support the Elam concept. Most of them want
to come back to Sri Lank and live peacefully,” he said.
Meanwhile, there are no plans to present KP before court; however
information provided by him has been invaluable to government intelligence.
“We are yet to decide on the matter of presenting him before court. We are
still in the process of gathering information, from him because he was a
person who was working with the LTTE especially on international affairs,
business and procurement.
Therefore we want to get as much information as possible and to break into
the LTTE network and get their assets,” the Secretary said.
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