19.9.2008

Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says the government is not ready to change its military plans to suit the United Nations or any other international non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

In an interview with a local newspaper, the Defence Secretary, who is the brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said, “The responsibility of the UN, primarily, becomes that of the host government. We’ve asked them to come out of Kilinochchi and relocate in Vavuniya. This is not withdrawal but relocation. The problem is that these foreign analysts don’t know the geography of the country. They think it’s like Africa and this is some 1000-kilometre move.

“Still if they want, they can go with the convoys and monitor the distribution. Don’t forget; with no UN system in place, food distribution happened quite effectively in Vakarai and Thoppigala through the AGAs [assistant government agents],” the paper quoted Mr. Rajapaksa as saying.

He also said that most of these NGOs were there for various development projects. “But given the ground situation there was no possibility of continuing this work,” he said. “So they need to come out of there because there is a security threat. This is very relevant when you look at what happened in Muttur. The parents of those killed blamed the NGO’s decision to keep them there despite the situation. We don’t want to get into the same situation. Certainly, when they can do their work again, they can go back,” he said.

CP