India:’Give Tamils a feeling they have the right to their own destiny’
India has warned Sri Lanka that it may not be able to win an ongoing war against separatist LTTE despite recent military gains, a report said today.
In comments that are bound to prove explosive in Sri Lanka, Indian National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan told The Straits Times newspaper: ‘I know the Sri Lankan government will be unhappy (at this advice).’
“Our argument is: unless you give Tamils a feeling they have the right to their own destiny in many matters, you will not succeed. (The) LTTE’s capacity to carry out terrorist attacks is not diminished,” he said.
“The (Sri Lankan army) has made a lot of progress in the last few weeks,” Narayanan said. “But even if they win the battle, I am not sure they will win the war.
Stating that Iraq was a good example, Narayanan said: ‘What we are telling them is, get the Tamils on your side by greater devolution of power. For them to be part of Sri Lankan state, they need the huge Tamil minority on their side.
‘What the Sri Lankans are not factoring in is the great deal of sullenness in the Tamil man. There are accusations of profiling even in Colombo,’ Narayanan said.
Earlier this month the top Indian official M.K. Narayanan on Sri Lankan affairs was given shoddy security protection while in Colombo to attend the SAARC summit, according to several media reports.
Taking note of a serious lapse in security, India said some of the arrangements discussed in advance for providing protection to the top leaders did not get implemented by the Government of Sri Lanka.
