http://www.dailynews.lk/2013/03/26/news16.asp

Decisions of some Western countries influenced by Tamil Diaspora - Defence Secretary

Chaminda Perera

Defence and Urban Development Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday said that some countries, including the United Kingdom and Canada have a very influential Tamil Diaspora and most of their decisions are influenced by the Tamil vote.

Delivering a talk on how terrorism was defeated in Sri Lanka at the Light House Hotel in Galle yesterday, Rajapaksa said that former Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs David Miliband told him that his victory margin was 300 votes, but, there are more than 3,000 Tamil voters in his constituency.

He added that the LTTE killed a Prime Minister of India and over a thousand of Indian Peace Keeping Force personnel during their engagement in the North, and voted in favour of the United States resolution at the UNHRC in Geneva due to excessive pressure from the Tamil Nadu politicians, who are a key alley of the coalition government.

He said that countries like UK, Canada and the US are well aware of how formidable the LTTE was and its atrocities though they remain silent about them and the achievement made by the government by defeating them. He said some countries are not willing to accept the progress made by Sri Lanka after ending terrorism.

The Defence Secretary was of the view that Sri Lanka should forge ties with the South American countries, like Peru, Chile and Argentina .

“I think these countries believe what the LTTE, Channel 04 and the international media are telling them,” he said. Rajapaksa added that Sri Lanka has only one mission in the entire South American region, that is Brazil. He added that many missions overseas has done a lot . He also noted that the Ministry of Defence has produced a number of publications to make aware of what the Government has achieved in many areas, including resettlement, reconstruction and many other fields after ending terrorism.

“Unfortunately many countries do not like to accept them, that is a major issue, “ he said.

“The Defence Secretary said most of neutral countries have accepted this face despite the US influence on these countries.

“How much influence does the US have over Japan?. But still they abstained from voting and accepted our story,” he said.

He stressed the importance of working hard to disseminate to the world, the country’s achievement in crushing one of the most ruthless terrorist organizations, which plagued us for more than 30 years.’