I want Prabhakaran alive: President

President Mahinda Rajapaksa says he wants LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran captured alive to face charges of crimes committed by him including the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi who was killed by a suicide bomber during an election rally in India. In an interview with the India Today Managing Editor, Raj Chengappa, Rajapaksa also reiterated he would negotiate with the LTTE only if they laid down arms and warned that if not, the government would have no option but to continue with the military operations. Either the LTTE accept a political solution by giving up arms and terrorist activities or we will have to curtail their moves. Either the LTTE accept a political solution by giving up arms and terrorist activities or we will have to curtail their moves, the President warned, adding, “The government can't kneel down to terrorists. They can't have their cake and eat it too.”
“A ceasefire will give them time again. We don't want them to strengthen themselves and attack us. We want a final solution," the President said.
While the government and the military had earlier assured the LTTE would be wiped out by the end of this year, President Rajapaksa said it might take a little bit longer.
"We would have cleared them out of the remaining areas long ago but we also had to ensure no civilians were killed. I would say, in a year and a half, we might be able to do it."
However, army chief General Sarath Fonseka who also vowed to defeat Tamil separatists refused to set a deadline for the end of the decades-old conflict, saying the rebels remain a potent force. On an interview with the Lakbima weekly newspaper he said a military campaign to capture the rebel-held Wanni region in the north begun in March last year was moving according to plan.
He however refused to give a timeframe for defeating the LTTE , who have fought for more than three decades to establish an independent homeland for minority Tamils in the Sinhalese-majority island.
"They are an organised force with a lot of experience. They have thousands of fighters. I don't conduct the war looking at deadlines and timeframes," Fonseka said. "Can a war that has been going on for more than 25 years be completed by March? But, what I say is -- give us a chance."
At the beginning of the year, in an interview with the state-run Sunday Observer, Fonseka said the LTTE had 3,000 fighters and pledged that the military could defeat them by mid-2008.
But in the interview published Sunday, he increased his estimate of rebel strength to 5,000 combatants, citing new intelligence reports.
On the ground, the defence ministry said at least 42 rebels and four soldiers were killed in fierce fighting in the north of the island on Saturday.
In the heaviest fighting in Vavuniya district, at least 15 rebels and three troops were killed, the ministry said in a statement. Twenty-seven other rebels and one soldier were killed in separate clashes.
The ministry put the number of rebels killed since the start of the year at 1,088. A total of 48 soldiers were killed during the same period, it said.
The number of casualties reported by both the government and the Tigers cannot be independently verified as journalists and human rights workers are not allowed to enter the battle zone.
Fonseka said the military had killed 5,000 Tiger rebels last year, without mentioning the total losses for security forces.
However, he said 4,000 government soldiers had been wounded in the last two years, with half of them choosing to return to the battlefield.
Fonseka, who was severely injured by a Tamil rebel suicide bomber in April 2006, told the weekly that security forces were advancing on the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi, the Tigers' political capital in the north.
"This time when we take Kilinochchi, we will not leave it after a while. But we must realise that the offensive is going to take time," he said.
Meanwhile, the army is being further strengthened with more men as the combined security forces campaign on the Vanni fronts enters a decisive stage with ground troops making significant progres . Fonseka on Saturday visited the area for a first hand assessment as troops on the Mannar front increased pressure on Adampan, an LTTE stronghold situated close to Yoda Wewa.
According to Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, the army had recruited about 3,000 since the beginning of this year. In an interview with Derana TV Saturday, the Brigadier while placing the number of recruits last year at 34,000 said that the army was 150,000 strong. He placed the combined strength of the three services over 200,000.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) last week expressed concern about the impact on civilians of heightened violence in the country.
An ICRC statement said that since the start of the year civilian casualties had gone up as the number of indiscriminate attacks had grown in the north, east and south of the country.
"Civilians and persons no longer taking direct part in the hostilities, such as sick, wounded or captured soldiers, must be protected in all circumstances under international humanitarian law," head of ICRC delegation in Colombo, Toon Vandenhove, said.
Over 80 civilians were killed, in the north and the south, since the government announced withdrawing from the truce agreed with the LTTE in January.
While the Tamil Tigers are accused of carrying out most of the attacks, security forces are accused of launching a claymore mine attack on a bus carrying school children in the LTTE-held area.
The military deniedthe accusation.
The ICRC said intensified fighting between government troops and the LTTE had increased the number of displaced persons and put humanitarian workers at greater risk.
The Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels both say that they inflicted heavy casualties on each others' forces in fierce fighting in the north on Friday.

Source: southasianmedia.net