Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday rejected the Tokyo Co-Chairs’ (Norway, Japan, US and EU) call for immediate negotiations with the LTTE to facilitate surrender of LTTE arms with a view to working out a political solution.

Nothing could be as ridiculous as this, an angry Rajapaksa told The Island, emphasising that nothing short of unconditional surrender of arms and cadres could bring an end to the offensive on the Vanni front.

The so-called ‘no-fire’ period proposed by Co-Chairs to evacuate sick and wounded now trapped in the LTTE-held area would be detrimental to Sri Lanka’s efforts to wipe out terrorism, he said.

The Co-Chairs seem to have conveniently forgotten that a group of local UN employees and their dependents, too, had been held by the LTTE, he said. The LTTE had thwarted several attempts to evacuate them, he said. For the LTTE, now holed up in approximately 200 square kilometre area, the civilian human shield seemed to be its last defence, he said.

He was speaking after the armed forces concluded an impressive display of their might at Galle Face to mark the 61st anniversary of Sri Lanka’s independence.

Sri Lanka displayed her Russian, Chinese and Israeli jets, Chinese artillery, Czechoslovakian multi-barrel rocket launchers and most importantly two Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs) acquired from India. SLNS Sayura and SLNS Sagara played a critical role in the operations against the LTTE’s shipping fleet thereby delivering a heavy blow to the organisation.

For almost two and half years, the armed forces had been fighting a difficult war against an enemy bent on dividing the country on ethnic lines, he said.

The Co-Chairs’ move, he asserted was nothing but a transparent attempt to save the Vanni Tigers. The international community shouldn’t hold Sri Lanka responsible for their failure to force the LTTE to allow civilians freedom of movement, the outspoken official said.

Responding to our queries, he said that Co-Chairs had ignored the recent proscription of the LTTE after it ignored repeated calls to release the civilians trapped in the war zone. The international community shouldn’t expect the Sri Lankan government to allow the LTTE’s participation as a political party in a fresh negotiating process after the armed forces crushed its wherewithal to wage war, he said.

The only thing the Co-Chairs got in their statement right was their assertion that there remained probably a short period of time before the LTTE lost control of all areas in the northern theatre, he said. Had they forced the LTTE to accept President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s offer of direct negotiations soon after the last presidential elections, it could have avoided a lot of trouble, he said.

The Defence Secretary strongly denied allegations that Puththukudirippu hospital had been attacked by the army or internationally banned cluster ammunition used on the Vanni front. He said that a section of the international community as well as a section of the press appeared to be making a desperate attempt to force a ceasefire in Sri Lanka.

Had the armed forces deliberately targeted civilians, they wouldn’t seek protection in the government-held area, he said, adding almost 270 men, women and children reached army lines at Vishvamadu on Independence Day.