Colombo, July 15: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has asserted that Colombo shares a special relationship with New Delhi, denying that China was assuming more importance than India as an ally.
“I don’t see that. We are not thinking like that. India is our neighbour and friend. We have a special relationship,” Rajapaksa said when asked if China was becoming more important than India as a Sri Lankan ally.
“For a small country like us, for development, you need money, you need assistance. In this world, who can afford to give us money. We can go to China. We can go to Russia or Brazil. Very few countries can afford to give. Japan is helping us a lot. Our biggest development partner is Japan. India is also helping us,” he said.
On granting of the ambitious multi-million dollar Hambantota port project in Southern end of Sri Lanka to China, Rajapaksa indicated India could have also bid for it.
“I asked for it. China didn’t propose it. It was not a Chinese proposal. The proposal was from us as they gave money to us. If India had said — Yes, we’ll give you a port, I will gladly accept. If America says, we will give a fully equipped airport — yes, why not? Unfortunately, they are not offering to us,” Rajapaksa told the TIME Magazine in an interview.
“The port project at Hambantota is a massive new Chinese project. It’s a Sri Lankan project and China helped us. It’s a commercial loan. Hambantota is my area, and it had been neglected for so many years. It’s my duty, my obligation to develop the area. We must develop not only Colombo, but other districts too,” he said.
The project which commenced last year proposes to put in place a gas-fired power plant, a ship repair unit, a container repair unit, an oil refinery and a bunkering terminal.
In reply to another question, Rajapaksa rejected charges of Human Rights violation in the Wanni by the security forces during the war with LTTE.
“I reject that totally. There was no violation of human rights. There were no civilian casualties. If I did that, it wouldn’t have taken two and a half years to finish this. I would have done this in a few hours. These are all propaganda,” he said.
Rajapaksa rejected any suggestion by UN that there were 7000 civilian casualties during the peak of the war with LTTE in the North.
“Seven thousand! No way. In the eastern province, zero casualties (in the war with LTTE that ended in July 2007). I won’t say there are zero casualties in the north. The LTTE shot some of them when they tried to escape,” Rajapaksa said.
–Agencies