REFUGEE

Sri Lanka’s peace will be secured only when the international network of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is dismantled after the defeat of the rebel military wing in May, Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said.

“It is only when these elements have also been defeated that we can claim to have truly secured our nation,” Rajapaksa said in a speech posted on the government’s Web site late yesterday. “To prevent the LTTE raising its head again, we should act now and act decisively.”

LTTE sympathizers continue to distort the view of Sri Lanka and it is essential for the West to understand that the South Asian island nation’s war on terrorism is little different from theirs, Rajapaksa said. As many as 600,000 Tamils fled Sri Lanka to escape the conflict, more than half of them going to the U.K. or Canada.

Sri Lanka has come under international criticism for delaying the resettlement of more than 280,000 mainly Tamil civilians kept in camps in the north since the war ended. The government says it must clear mines and secure the former conflict zone and that more than half of the displaced people are now settled in their areas of origin.

The United Nations, the U.S. and U.K. have led calls for the civilians to be allowed to leave the camps as soon as possible. John Holmes, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, begins a two-day visit to the country tomorrow to assess progress in the resettlement program.

Expecting Changes

Countries criticizing Sri Lanka are expecting changes “to happen overnight,” Rajapaksa said.

“Instead of accepting the propaganda offensives of terrorist sympathizers in their corridors of power, the countries that are still mounting pressure on Sri Lanka should understand that we all face similar challenges,” the minister said.

Tamils are being kept in “conditions of internment” in the camps, Navi Pillay, the UN human rights commissioner, said in September, a comment rejected by the government in Colombo.

The resettlement program may be completed by the end of January next year, Sri Lanka said yesterday. About 28,000 people have been returned to homes in the Kilinochchi district in the north, the Defense Ministry cited Major General G.A. Chandrasiri, the governor of Northern Province, as saying in a statement on its Web site yesterday.

The number of civilians in camps in the region has been reduced to 137,000, according to the ministry.

Sown With Mines

The army defeated the last Tamil Tiger forces in a battle near the northeastern town of Mullaitivu, ending their 26-year fight for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east of the country.

The army says the northern region was littered with an estimated 1.5 million mines and unexploded ordnance covering 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) of territory.

Rajapaksa, in his speech, appealed to Sri Lankans to unite to develop the country now the war is over and avoid falling into the trap of complacency, petty rivalry and divisive politics.

General Sarath Fonseka, Sri Lanka’s chief of defense staff, resigned last week amid speculation he will challenge President Mahinda Rajapaksa in elections scheduled to take place before April next year.

Fonseka, who headed the army during the operations that led to the defeat of the LTTE, said soldiers won the war against the LTTE and criticized people he didn’t identify for trying to take credit for the victory, the Island daily newspaper reported on Nov. 12.

The government yesterday published a letter sent to the general accepting his request to retire immediately. A further communication, setting out the position of the government, will be made in response to comments made by the general in his resignation letter, it cited Lalith Weerathunge, secretary to the president, as saying.