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India should avoid the mistakes of
the past while Sri Lanka should accommodate New Delhi's
security concerns in the spirit of "true friendship"
between the two neighbours, the leader of Sri Lanka's
radical Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)
has said.
Saying the 1980s were a tumultuous
time when India "promoted" Tamil militancy in Sri Lanka,
Somawansa Amarasinghe said, "What India did was
terrible, and should not be repeated.
"In fact, it was India which
started cross-border terrorism in South Asia. This was a
strategic mistake, not a mere tactical mistake, for
India itself began experiencing separatist terrorism,"
Amarasinghe told IANS in an interview.
The JVP had warned India about the
consequences of its actions, but to no avail, he
recalled.
"We met the then Indian high
commissioner and told him that India should abandon this
path and tackle president J.R. Jayewardene (of Sri
Lanka) in a different way. But our appeals were not
heeded," Amarasinghe said.
But now, the JVP wants to let
bygones be bygones and build a new relationship with
India.
"We in the JVP do not want to live
in the past. We need friendship with India because India
is not only a neighbour but is our only neighbour," he
said.
The JVP was wary of Western
designs on Sri Lanka and preferred to build bridges with
Asian countries, he stated.
"In this context, I welcome the
coming together of the two Asian giants, India and
China, especially the visit of (Congress president)
Sonia Gandhi to China," Amarasinghe said.
The seniormost leader and
ideologue of the JVP, which is a power to reckon with in
the Sri Lankan parliament, said India should extend "kalyana
mittata" or "true friendship" to Sri Lanka.
Amarasinghe recalled that when
Prince Mahinda, the son of legendary Emperor Ashoka,
brought Buddhism from India to Sri Lanka, it was
avowedly on the basis of benevolence.
"I do not want to use the term
benevolence in the current context, but we need to see
India assisting Sri Lanka on the basis of kalyana
mittata. It will create a situation where the two
countries can harness their full potential for mutual
benefit," he said.
"For its part, Sri Lanka should
recognise and accommodate India's security concerns," he
proposed.
When asked if the JVP was opposed
to Indian investments and trade in services, Amarasinghe
said, "We are not opposed to foreign investment but we
insist that they should be of mutual benefit.
"We opposed the grant of petrol
stations to the Indian Oil Corporation because we
believed that the distribution of a strategic resource
like fuel should be in the hands of Sri Lankans."
He said relations between his
country and India should be based on the Panchsheel
treaty of peaceful coexistence.
"Panchsheel obviates cold war,"
Amarasinghe told IANS in an interview here.
Propounded by India's first prime
minister Jawaharlal Nehru and then Chinese premier Zhou-Enlai
in 1954, the five principles of Panchsheel envisage
respect for each other's sovereignty and territorial
integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in
each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual
benefit, and peaceful coexistence.
On the ongoing efforts to work out
a devolution package for the Tamil minority, the JVP
leader said that priority should be given to defeating
the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) militarily,
not changing the constitution.
Constitutional changes could be
made after democracy is restored in the Tamil-speaking
areas of the country's northeast where the Tigers had
throttled democracy, he added.
Asked about the All Party
Representative Committee (APRC) set up by President
Mahinda Rajapaksa to draft a new devolution package,
Amarasinghe said it was neither "all-party" nor vested
with a mandate to do what it was doing.
"The United National Party, which
is the country's main opposition party and the JVP, are
not there. We withdrew from the committee because we
felt that it was going to dilute the unitary structure
of the constitution against the popular mandate
Rajapaksa had got in the 2005 presidential elections,"
Amarasinghe explained.
On how the JVP proposed to solve
the Tamil question if it was opposed to federalism - a
long standing demand of all Tamils - Amarasinghe said
the solution did not lie in dividing Sri Lanka into
ethnic enclaves.
"Once the LTTE is finished, the
military should come out of the north and east. Free
speech must be restored among the Tamils there, and
elections should be held. The Tamils must be given all
opportunities that other citizens of Sri Lanka get. In
fact, they should be given special concessions to make
up for the lack of opportunities under LTTE control.
"Once free speech is restored in
the northeast, we can discuss constitutional matters
with the Tamils," the JVP chief said.
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