VZCZCXRO0805
PP RUEHBI RUEHLMC
DE RUEHLM #0464/01 0800416
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 210416Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 000464 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA/INS (BERNICAT, SIM, GOWER) AND SCA/PD (NEVILLE) 
MCC FOR S GROFF, D NASSIRY, E BURKE AND F REID 
 
E.O. 12958:N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM PTER EAID MOPS CE
SUBJECT:  SRI LANKA: DEFENSE SECRETARY CANDIDLY BRIEFS FOREIGN MEDIA 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa 
held a closed door, off-the-record meeting with members of the 
Foreign Correspondents Association and some foreign diplomats.  In 
response to pointed questions, Rajapaksa gave blunt answers, 
revealing a different side to that usually shown the diplomatic 
community.  He referred to human rights as an obstacle in the fight 
against terrorism and predicted a military eradication of the LTTE 
in three years.  He dismissed international criticism as "politics." 
 End Summary. 
 
LETTING HIS HAIR DOWN 
--------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) On March 13, Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gothabaya 
Rajapaksa held a 90-minute question-and- answer-session with members 
of the Foreign Press Association.  Also in the audience were 
representatives of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, the UN and some 
western diplomatic missions.  (The U.S. was not invited, but we 
obtained readouts from multiple sources present).  Radiating 
confidence and speaking bluntly under the cover of off-the-record 
ground rules, Gothabaya gave his version and vision of Sri Lanka. 
 
WE KNOW WHO OUR FRIENDS ARE 
--------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Gothabaya stated that the United States, India, China and 
Pakistan supported the Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) fully in its 
fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).  He noted 
specifically that the United States provided logistics, 
intelligence, training, equipment and moral support to the GSL. 
 
PLAYING TO WIN 
-------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) When participants brought up Ambassador's many statements 
that the U.S. does not believe there can be a military solution to 
the conflict, the Defense Secretary laughed it off, saying 
Ambassador Blake was wrong.  When pressed by another journalist that 
no other country thought Sri Lanka could achieve a military victory, 
Gothabaya's temper flared: "I'm here to win this war.  You don't go 
to a match and play for a draw, you play to win."  He added, "We've 
chased the Tigers into the jungles.  We can achieve a military 
victory over the Tigers in two to three years."   When asked why Sri 
Lanka had not already defeated the LTTE, Gothabaya answered: "We 
must show perseverance.  We must not be stopped by obstacles, by 
internal and external pressures over human rights or humanitarian 
crises."  He went on to condemn local political parties for thinking 
of themselves and not on the nations' behalf. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Gothabaya claimed the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) has a new 
war-fighting technique to eliminate civilian casualties --  areas 
would be cleared of civilians first and then the terrorists would be 
engaged.  Gothabaya said the Sri Lankan military would take every 
opportunity to destroy LTTE assets wherever possible, gradually 
breaking the Tigers' will and restricting them to the jungle.  One 
observer reported that Gothabaya made it clear that the Army was on 
the offensive and that the GSL terming its operations "defensive" 
was just politics. 
 
GOING HOME 
---------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) On the subject of resettling land cleared of the LTTE, 
Gothabaya stated that some areas of Sampur would not be repopulated 
with the original residents in order to set up a High Security Zone 
to protect the Trincomalee harbor entrance and the proposed new 
power plant.  Gothabaya also noted that 384 Sinhalese families who 
previously lived in Sampur had filed claims that had to be resolved 
before all the Tamils could return. 
 
MISSING 
------- 
 
COLOMBO 00000464  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) Gothabaya said that the figure of 1,300 alleged abductions 
was inflated, joking that he couldn't abduct that many people if he 
wanted to.  He went on to claim that abductions in Sri Lanka were no 
worse than in other countries, such as the U.S.  He informed the 
journalists that most of the missing are LTTE cadres who had 
returned to their units and that instead of asking the GSL, critics 
and journalists should check the lists against the 700 Tigers he 
said were killed in Vakarai. 
 
CRITICAL REVIEWS 
---------------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) Gothabaya observed that it took five years for opposition 
in the U.S. to build against the Global War on Terror, but even now, 
he said, the debate was more over methods than goals.  He also 
dismissed criticism from the international community as mere 
politics, pointing out those countries critical of the GSL were 
still providing aid money.  He called the Sri Lankan Monitoring 
Mission useless, saying they might as well be on vacation and were 
only in Sri Lanka to improve their resumes and to collect $1000 per 
month in hazard pay. 
 
¶9. (SBU) COMMENT: All of our six interlocutors' accounts of the 
meeting were consistent.  The Secretary's candid comments are in 
marked contrast to his more guarded statements in official meetings. 
Gothabaya's wisecracks about abductions strike us as glib and 
ill-considered since many disappearances end fatally for the 
victims. 
 
BLAKE