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More
bloodshed if not for military push - Bogollagama
Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama claimed yesterday that,
if Sri Lanka had not flexed its military muscle over the LTTE,
there would have been more bloodshed in the country.
Addressing members of the elite Carlton Club in London, on
the sidelines of the Commonwealth Summit this week, Bogollagama
avowed that his government is fully aware that military victories
never provide solutions, adding, “but they can provide
the space for political and economic solutions to be found.
Confronted with ruthless terrorists, we have realised that
without military power, the result can be more bloodshed.
Recalling that the Carlton Club itself was confronted with
terrorism, when the Club was attacked by the IRA in 1990,
Minister Bogollagama said that, when faced with intransigent
terrorists, democracies have a responsibility to protect their
people from the clutches of terrorists – “even if,
we sometimes have to err within reason, on the side of civil
liberties.”
“To cry foul over alleged human rights violations, when
the LTTE is the worst perpetrator of violence, killings, abductions
and so on, this could sometimes be an irritant, as ground
realities seem to be ignored. I must, however, emphasise at
this point that, our government takes with utmost seriousness,
concerns about alleged human rights violations attributed
to it,” the Minister added.
Bogollagama reiterated that the LTTE has demonstrated that,
it is not interested in peace or serious political negotiations,
but only a perpetuation of terror and mayhem.
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