President withstood foreign 'aggression'

Towards the end of the war, when the Tamil diaspora and the LTTE saw no light at the end of the tunnel, they requested the politicians with whom they were aligned to put pressure on the Sri Lankan government to stop the war.

Thereafter, delegation after delegation visited Sri Lanka to coerce the President for ceasefires. The President had said that, there was a time when he had declined to answer the phone because of the incessant calls from foreign countries requesting a ceasefire .

Towards the end of the war, a top European delegation consisting of David Miliband (UK) and Bernard Kouchner (France) arrived and Hilary Clinton who was scheduled to be in the team had got held up. So she had sent a message saying that she is backing the two delegates.

Their main request was to end the offensive against the terrorists. The irony was that when the war was nearly ending and the terrorists were besieged and on the run, the delegates were saying , 'Now is the time to end the fighting'. They had even offered to go to the No Fire Zone to discuss this with the LTTE .

The President had made it clear to them that there is no need for a cease fire as the military strategy at that stage was on a 'Humanitarian Operation' . As the delegates had kept on insisting the President had told them very politely, " This is my country and I take decisions. Don't try and lecture to me on how to run the war".

Miliband and Kouchner confirmed this at the press conference after the meeting saying, "...We tried very hard - we insisted and insisted for a ceasefire but there was no way we could turn the President around ..."

By any chance, if the President had pulled out as his predessors in the past we would have been back in square one. And Gen. Fonseka would have withdrawn to the bunkers and been a non-entity. Gen. Fonseka came to the limeliight because of the President's firm stand against foreign pressure.

Other threats brought against Sri Lanka were:

a) Suspending funds from donor countries

b) Economic sanctions

c) War crimes

d) Withholding of the World Bank loan and so on.

Further, the West not only refused to sell arms and war equipment to Sri Lanka but also prevented aircrafts carrying supplies and flying over their air space during the war.

Therefore, at this crucial election the people should be proud of the President who had with stood all this foreign 'aggression'.

- Asian Tribune -