Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe of Sri Lanka has said that his government does not agree with civil war death toll figures published in a recent UN report, but added that it is willing to verify and get back to the world body on the issue.
Speaking with Thanthi TV in an exclusive interview, Wickremasinghe said, "The UN report talks of the last phase of the war, where large numbers of people were killed. The numbers are in dispute. UN report says 40,000...Some of the official reports say 5000... I don't think it would come even up to 40,000... We are willing to verify it. Sri Lanka had to fight a war...LTTE used the civilians as a shield... Then what happened there, is what we have to inquire into... Was it that they were used as a shield and you couldn't avoid the casualties or, was it that you could avoid some casualties and you did'nt do so. We are not trying to cover any thing up. We are dealing with the UN."
On the allegation that a genocide had taken place against Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Prime Minister said, "I would say that a large number of people of Sri Lanka, including a large number of Tamils were killed in the conflict. Some of them are casualties of war. Some are killed for no reason at all. Deaths have been partly due to the operations of the Sri Lankan Army, security forces, partly due to the operations of the IPKF, partly due to the operations of the LTTE."
On whether he would agree that the blame for the deaths should be laid at the doorstep of the IPKF, Wickramasinghe said," People were killed by all these... casualties took place under Sri Lankan security forces, IPKF and also by LTTE... We are in no way denying it. We are not going to say that the actions of the Sri Lankan security forces did not result in deaths of Tamils, may be in large numbers. Some in fighting and some in other circumstances, which we are willing to look at. But to say that it was only the Government of Sri Lanka?"
He also maintained that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had paid money to the LTTE.
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"One of them who took the money to LTTE, Amirkanthan, is still there somewhere in the Middle East. That's well known. That is a fact, even Rajapaksa has not denied... Prabhakaran took money," said the Prime Minister.
Wickramasinghe said that had he been the President of Sri Lanka, efforts would have been made to arrive at a resolution.
"Many in the LTTE were willing to do a deal. Prabhakaran wasn't ready. Finally, he fell out with Balasingham...Why was Balasingham excluded? Balasingham knew the reality .The reality was the International Community wanted a deal. Prabhakaran thought I can't finish him off physically, I will finish off politically. He could finish off Premadasa physically; He failed to finish off President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who was for peace, who still stands for peace. He did'nt want a peace settlement because after five or six years, his leadership could have been challenged," said Wickremasinghe.
"One of the biggest concerns,we had was what would be the security of Prabhakaran after the peace settlement, because he would have been a target of people from the North who wanted to settle scores with him. How many Tamil leaders were killed...His own Mathaya was put into a cage and shot. Why did some of the others break away and come? Because they knew Prabhakaran would kill them. Finally, Prabhakaran's desire for glory was such that he nearly wiped out the whole Tamil race," added the Prime Minister.
He further told Thanthi TV that he blamed Prabhakaran destroying and decimating the Tamil political leadership.
Wickramasinghe said that the government is willing to conduct an internal and national inquiry, and could not go for an international inquiry, because, Sri Lanka like India, was not a party to Statute of Rome.
"Therefore, jurisdiction lies with the domestic courts. There was problem with the domestic courts, as to whether the courts are independent, when the Chief Justice was moved out. We now have the same standards like India. India would say the same stand as us... We are willing to have an inquiry, if they want to have foreign observers; we have no problems with it at all," he added.
He also said he was not on the same page as former president Rajapaksa on this issue, but was on the same line with the Government of India as far as jurisdiction in criminal and legal matters were concerned.
"It lies with the Republic of India and with Republic of Sri Lanka. I'm the one who refused to sign the statute of Rome. But I'm prepared to have any amount of trials in Sri Lanka. We have to ensure that the judiciary is independent... If anyone wants to come in, Human Rights Watch or any one, they are completely free to come into Sri Lanka, which was not allowed by Rajapaksa. If there is a request for an enquiry in Sri Lanka, We can talk over it with the Human Rights council. Let's see what their final report...We are willing to discuss with them," he said.
"All we are saying is that the jurisdiction for trials lies with the Government of Sri Lanka just as much as in India it lies with India, in America it lies with the USA. Remember that these are all governments that have not signed the Statute of Rome. Therefore, if Human Rights Watch wants to come tomorrow, they are free to come. I will say yes. As far as the UN is concerned, if they make recommendations, certainly we have to consider and talk to them... We have invited the High Commissioner. If someone else makes a request... No....When we had problems in the south in 1989 and 1990, they asked for international enquiry... I said No; the person who asked for the international enquiry was a person by the name of Mahinda Rajapaksa," Wickremasinghe said.
He further revealed that when he met UNHCR chief Nina Pillay, he had told her to make her recommendations, and if the then opposition were to form the government, it would consider it.
He, however, said that he made it clear that a line needed to be drawn between what is domestic jurisdiction and what is an inquiry.
"We want an inquiry. As far as jurisdiction is concerned, it is a matter for Sri Lanka. As far as the inquiry is concerned, it is not me; it is President Rajapaksa who agreed with the Secretary General of the UN that there shall be an inquiry that meets international standards. It is the same resolution which he got the member states to move in the UN Human Rights Council. Whatever commitments President Rajapaksa gave in writing to the UN secretary General and the UN Human Rrights Council, we will honor... I have no problems about that," Wickremasinghe said.
