 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. We have with us here Mr. Veera Singham Anandasangari, a very senior and a distinguished political leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front in Sri Lanka. We shall discuss with him the current political situation in Sri Lanka and also in brief the contours of a political solution that he has in his mind. Welcome to NewsClick, Mr. Anandasangari. First of all, I would like to ask you, your party won the recently held local elections in the war-affected Kirinachi district. So you must have seen the plight of the people from close quarters. How is the situation now? Has the rehabilitation process started? Even without the elections, we say I am in touch with the electorate. Things are very horrible in the city. The conditions are very bad. Although the government is boasting about that they are doing well. No, I am not at all satisfied. Because Kirinachi and Mulletio are two districts where people had been moved out without living behind a single soul, even animals. Even animals were in that state. So in a situation like that when the government resettled them, they didn't take the resettlement very seriously. They came back to see their houses without rules. Their furniture is missing. The windows and doors are missing. The houses are virtually raised to the ground. The government gave them a few tin sheets. It is about 12-1. Some wooden, some timber and some no timber. I don't know what the government expects them to do with that and a few dry provisions supplied by the World Food Organization. If anybody thinks that this is sufficient to rebuild a house, we have four or five people living very comfortably with all facilities. Then we are making a mistake. I am not at all convinced that even a single household have gone back to their old life. It is surprising that considering that there is still so much misery that the government's promise of an economic development program has not really attracted them and they have actually voted firmly for parties which are articulating a far more stronger political solution. I asked the government through you who is bothered about development when I am looking for my wife, my children, the wife is looking for the husband. People are virtually starving. Children are dying without proper medical facilities. Even small children are without sufficient meal food. Who is bothered about development? First question I am asking the government. Secondly, what is the development they are doing? Putting up houses for the army. Some buildings for the various government offices. Let them show one development which one can feel proud of or call it worthy of categorizing it as a development project. Do you think the government is sincere at all about the need for a political solution and addressing these core issues of rehabilitation? Something is radically wrong with the government. You know everything was okay. At one stage I thought we have a good president. Things are going to be okay. And he also gave that impression. Impression, making different, various references. We thought he is very honest and sincere. Well, I don't know whether he is doing things on his own. He has others to do things for him. In fact, one of my letters I wrote to him, you are Mind the Sindhania. Sindhania means thinking. Based on which you are planning development, various other things. The Mind the Sindhania is now either polluted or diluted. Furthermore, the Sindhania of many people are being smuggled into U.S. Sindhania and you are now under compelling circumstances to accept them as U.S. Sindhania. This is not what the people expected from you. In fact, I wrote to him that. I sense a lot of disappointment. Disappointment, a lot of disappointment. People are disappointed. So there is this talk of a new parliamentary select committee that would actually address the question of a political solution. There is also some degree of betrayal that one perceives based on what the government is saying in terms of the fact that they are not willing to have talks with the TNA even though the TNA seems to have been the legitimate voice of the Tamil people. Total betrayal, I will call it. Total. Because this is a problem that is more than 60 years old. I had lived through that period, you see. From the time we got independence up to now, you see. At that time, I was mature enough to understand things. There was a school going. Up to now, I had lived through this period and I know aware of what and what things happened or I will face good things and bad things. I want to know from the government how many more centuries you want to identify what the problems of the Tamils are and how to solve it. This is a matter that is going on. To be very more correct, we will start with the passing of the single-only activity in violation of the section 29, which is perhaps the only provision. Save card, the minority set in the old constitution. Let the government conveniently drop it, you see, and they adopted a new constitution without similar provision in their new constitution. They know what we want. We are not asking for milk and honey, you see. We want to live like you. We want the people to live as equal. Let no one feel superior to the other or inferior to the other. That is the problem we have. There are people who are asking us, what is your problem, sir? Now the war was never our problem. Our problems are economical, education in all fields, there was discrimination. And the discrimination we thought after the eradication of the LTT, the discrimination will stop and the government will use its good office to win over the minority. Now every action taken by the government is driving the minorities far away from the government. Quickly, sir, what kind of sequence of steps would you now advise, would you now tell the government as an advice? Simple, no. I had been taken to the president. Please, go before the TV. You tell the country that you are elected president for the whole country, not for a particular community or religious group. Then tell them now that you have elected me as the president, you have given me a mandate to solve the problem that the country is facing. Leave it to me. Without betraying you, without betraying any community, without harming any community, without harming any group of people in the country. I will solve the problem. Trust me and handle the problem to me and forget about it. I will see that everyone in the country will live peacefully and with more security, life and things like that. Why can't the government do that? The president can do that. Finally, sir, yesterday something positive happened. The emergency laws which were in place for a long time have finally been removed. So hopefully this is going to herald some progressive change now. If they have removed it, it is for a bad turn in the life of the people. They have already started harassing young people. Army had taken, they have started harassing young boys. This is what happened 30 years back. They had army and the police were responsible for the army of the groups in Sri Lanka 30-35 years back. The government probably wants it again so that they can comfortably sit in the soldiers and have a good ride, you see. If the government is serious, you know, now the government openly tells the whole world, we have eradicated terrorism. Now, what is the need for the army to be there? What is the need for the army to be there? Now, they can easily say now everything is okay. They can, now withdraw. They are not withdrawing. Every village in Klinocchi, there is an army camp. Every village in Klinocchi, they barbed in certain areas, you see, and prevented the owners from getting into the land. There are arguments, you know, there are silly arguments, you see. No man, educated man, need to talk like that. There are some army chiefs who say, I say, this is land we have grabbed from the LDD, not from you. What an idiotic thing to say that. They never, you know, they never grabbed the land from the LDD. The LDD held it under compulsion, under by force, you see. And, you know, it took nearly a year for the government to return the houses in which I was living. It was not my own house. I don't know. And perhaps one of the only, one of the only person who is not doing any land in Klinocchi or anywhere else. But I lived in a land. You see, I had a right to go back to the land. The government deliberately kept it for nearly seven, eight months. So, you are telling us that demilitarization and sincerity of effort in trying to convince the people are the need of the army? Our first priority today is demilitarization. People are being harassed by the army at every turn. Even to have a discussion about the development of a temple, we have to inform the army. For a sports meet, army has to be there. For a school function, where you find only a free school function. The army expects them to be invited. So, this we don't know. This is not democracy. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much for this short interview that you have given us considering your tough schedule as well.