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Featured Article: Air strike and party politics

Sunday, 01 April 2007

Following the LTTE’s air attack on the Katunayake Air force base, Prsident Rajapakse has declared that the government was prepared to face any threats and deal with it.

At the same time Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogolagama stated that the government is prepared for talks the very next day. Meanwhile several political parties have made various statements to suit the political future of their respective parties.

The government charges that it was the Ceasefire Agreement signed by the UNP government with the LTTE that strengthened the LTTE to build up an air force. This is seen as a clever move to shift the blame for this imbalance in military power on the former government.

On the other hand, the UNP too adopts a similar tactic to put the blame on the present government. The UNP charges that the funds given to the LTTE following the Mahinda Rajapakse---LTTE agreement during the Presidential polls helped the LTTE to build up its air power.

Instead of addressing their minds on the seriousness of the issue, these two major political parties, namely the SLFP and the UNP, are interested in forging ahead their party politics.

While the main political parties are engaged in this type of campaign, the National Patriotic Movement pleads that the government must give up talks with the LTTE and crush it through a military agenda.

It further states that since no country in the world has so far condemned the LTTE’s air attack and since the UN Secretary General has appealed for resumption of talks without condemning the attack, it is obvious that the international community is acting in favour of the LTTE.

The attack on the air force military base was a target on a military installation. The war planes that engage in the air strikes in the north and the east operate from this air force base. So how can it be expected that the international community will condemn the air strike as it was on a military installation in times of a war?