We want to help relocate displaced Tamils

Full text of the interview with Mr. Bogollagama, Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, conduced by the BBC on 1st December 2009
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(December 02, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Presenter (Nik Gowing) : I am joining live here in London by the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Sri Lanka Rohitha Bogollagama. Minister welcome. Why can't these Tamil detainees just leave on their own accord and not have to come back ?

Minister : We have been ready to do so for a period of time and no one wants to hold, anyone in terms of some type of restriction.

Presenter : Why do they have to register to leave ?

Minister : The need be we are maintaining the camps temporarily till such time they leave back home and we want to encourage more and more people to go back home and you'll recall my own interviews here with you right here when the numbers were 280,000 two three months ago and today we have got down to 126,000. We have made over 150,000 leave within a very short period of time (interruption).

Presenter : What I want to ask you, what is the principle behind, why they have to register, why they can't leave as they would like to, to get fresh food ?

Minister : Very good, they could still go and the fresh food is all around. At the same time, they have to go back home which we want to do is to provide them with more and more shelter. We have to have the statistics in order to see that they get the shelter they need. Then also we have to have the areas cleared in terms of landmines and if we know where they want to go, then we could facilitate.

These numbers will not be 126,000 by tomorrow, it will be another three four thousand less. Likewise, we are reducing the numbers.

Presenter : There is a limit of fifteen days, then those who are detainees would be cracked down, not allowed to move around at their own wherever they want to go as long as they want.

Minister : Absolutely, we have allowed 156,000 ..(interruption)

Presenter : You accept that now?

Minister : We are not accepting it. It is not the case at all. Let me get in terms of what I wish to say. Right now, you wouldn't have been able to pose any of these questions if the numbers were at 286,000. Now the numbers at 126,000 and the numbers are receding on a daily basis, this only a temporary situation. What we are looking at is in order to facilitate more and more shelter for our people, more and more areas for them to get back to. Even this morning I shared these concerns also what we are seeking with the international community with some of my colleagues in the House of Commons this morning before I came over here (interruption)

Presenter : You will understand that I mentioned about human rights and the international concerns. There is a concern you are still wanting to control these Tamils particularly in advance of the elections at the end of January. It's become a political issue and not a humanitarian issue.

Minister : Not at all. All these time it had been a humanitarian issue and it will continue to be a humanitarian concern and that concern is expressed by the government more than anyone else and we want to see people are back home and that is how our strategy and we want to make it happen.

Presenter : We are happy to discuss this here in London, and you are on your way back from the Commonwealth Summit. Why aren't you allowing independent observers in, like the BBC correspondent and many international correspondents to check, to see for themselves whether their permits will get withdrawn? (interruption).

Minister : Absolutely it is totally open..... (interruption). So that they can go tomorrow, you take my word.(interruption). Absolutely there is no restriction that we impose in anyone, any journalist and in the event if there are any procedural issues administrative details to be worked out, we are happy to work on that. Our President has gone on record allowing everybody to access these camps including some of these delegations coming from India, from United Nations and various other organisations. During the last three weeks, we had all eminent visitors coming to Sri Lanka, couple of Foreign Ministers, UN Under Secretary General, John Holmes and the Indian Parliamentary delegation. They have seen to themselves and they have said that we are doing an admirable job in Sri Lanka and that is the message I want to get across.

Presenter : We need as many independent observers as possible. Let me ask about the credibility problem, human rights record, Human Rights Council and now the Commonwealth Summit in Trinidad over the weekend where led by Britain and Australia you have now been denied the chance to host the Commonwealth Summit in two years. That suggests that you have a big problem in terms of your credibility and your image, you Foreign Minister.

Minister : I would like you to put it this way, reason being that we have been always looking at a CHOGM in terms of when it is convenient and the fact that in 2007, we proposed 2011 in terms of how the leaders were looking at in terms of there are other takers by 2009 and we are accommodating all the time, Australia has come in at the same time Mauritius has come in and Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of UK has proposed Sri Lanka for hosting it in 2013. We welcome that.

Presenter : Why it was being blocked by Britain and Australia because of human rights concerned about you ended the war against Tamil tigers?

Minister : Not at all and that expression has never come onboard and at the same time it was never discussed and it is a matter of fact what Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of UK said to the world leaders who assembled at the CHOGM was that they are all equally qualified to host 2011 summit and they would like only have in that order in terms of Australia, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and that is the message. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to say that quoting the Prime Minister of United Kingdom.

Presenter : Right Minister, lets move on. There is now a second Presidential candidate facing your President Rajapaksa. He is the General who seems to left in high judge and retired early, General Fonseka.

He gave a briefing on Sunday in which he said the following. Lets listen to his remarks about the current President.

General Fonseka: Sri Lanka suffered indignities and violence in the hands of a terrorist. We have been suffering for too long. We have done away with the terrorist. But now you can't leave the country in the hands of a tin pot dictator.

Presenter: He said there that your country is led by "a tin pot dictator". He suggests that the President should no longer be the President because he is "a tin pot dictator". What do you say about this as a representative of his government?

Minister: I think his language there speaks for his character having served as the Army Commander. It is a very regrettable statement coming from the very army commander who served the Commander in Chief, the Commander of Chief being the President of a democratic country, a sovereign state who had a mandate from the people to eliminate terrorism and who gave the strength and the leadership to the country's armed forces, the Army, Navy and the Air Force and brought in the resources and got into a humanitarian exercise in freeing the people of Sri Lanka from the clutches of terrorism and that of the brutality of the LTTE terrorism and having a General is to run an army and there are so many Generals in an army.

Presenter: He is now a politician and in an interview with our correspondent Charles Haviland in Colombo broadcast just before you were right here in this studio he accepted the human rights and civil rights record justice and law and order was quote unacceptable and I would change that track record and in other words he realises that this is not acceptable in the early 21st century.

Minister: This is my problem right here. In the event you call General Fonseka because he is a candidate, a politician, I like first to know from which political party he represents Sri Lanka's polity. Secondly, a General becoming an agent at an election we are going to lead a very very dangerous trend in terms of Sri Lanka's polity.

Presenter: It has to be taken seriously when he says there are difficulties in freedom and justice for the people as you just said in the BBC interview.

Minister: I would have liked if the leader of the opposition of Sri Lanka to express himself on these matters, a person who he has been virtually accused at one time denying these freedom of our people is today saying that he is the person going to give the freedom to our people. Now that job is a matter that our people have to decide and I am sorry to state here in a democracy how agencies can still work in terms of run up to elections and in terms of candidates at elections and this is a regrettable situation.

Presenter: Foreign Minister, Bogollagma thanks for joining us on BBC World News today.

Minister: Thank you.

-Sri Lanka Guardian