Samaraweera said he and Rajapaksa again went to New Delhi. “Prime minister Manmohan Singh was not happy. And he showed it in his own subtle way. When we went to meet Dr Singh, the cameras were not allowed...they didn’t even allow the media team accompanying us,” he recalled. “It was a clear indication that Dr Singh was not happy. But, now I don’t know why New Delhi is not asking questions. LTTE’s rout has given us an opportunity to initiate a political process, but left to the Sri Lankan Government, they will never do it.”

Samaraweera said that there is a talk that the people in IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps will be kept there for three years. “I have no doubt that India will soon have only one choice in Sri Lanka. After the disappearance of coercive LTTE from the centre stage of Tamil politics here, India would either have to support a demand for Eelam in north and east or support an authoritarian government in Colombo. There will be no middle ground—no takers for devolution plan of any sort in Colombo,” he said.

“This is why I wish New Delhi wakes up. We want Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity to remain, but there is a need to resolve the ethnic conflict through devolution of powers,” Samaraweera said. “I know President Rajapakasa. His political outlook is deeply rooted in Buddhist Sinhalese nationalism. He will never do anything more than the military campaign”.

He said that the LTTE’s objectives and the genuine aspirations of Sri Lankan Tamils are separate. “LTTE has been seriously weakened and no one is sorry about it. They are a brutal repressive force, which suppressed the rights of Tamil people and killed some of their best minds. Prabhakaran is a criminal. But a military victory is not the end of the story,” he said.

... contd.