Sri Lanka
Appreciates Pakistan's Fight Against Terrorism
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| President
Musharraf wearing a traditional garland on arrival in Colombo
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By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, August 1 (IslamOnline) - Sri Lanka President Chandrika
Kumaratunga praised Wednesday, July 31, Pakistan's President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf’s role in fighting global terrorism.
“Pakistan
has consistently supported Sri Lanka on matters related to our ethnic
conflictæ” Kumaratunga said at a banquet she hosted for the
visiting Pakistani president Wednesday, July 31, adding that the
“support derives from Pakistan's genuine desire, based on decades of
close, neighborly relations, to see peace [here].”
She
appreciated Musharraf’s firm stand against global terrorism: “As a
country that has suffered much from terrorism and sectarianism in the
past, we hope very much that the burdens you have borne and still
carry will soon be lifted.”
There
is enough reason for Sri Lankans being grateful to the Pakistani
leader, whose timely decision to supply crucial weapons in 2000 helped
the army beat back an attack by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) terrorists from the outskirts of Jaffna city. LTTE rebels were
about to overrun Jaffna when the Pakistani multi-barrel rocket
launchers arrived to turn the tide of the battle.
Musharraf
was given a 21-gun salute before being driven into town for a state
dinner with Kumaratunga.
Sri
Lankan media welcomed the Pakistani president, lauding his steady
support to the country's efforts to prevent LTTE rebels from gaining
an upper hand.
Referring
to the April 2000 LTTE advance on Jaffna, Sri Lanka’s daily Island
said: “Pakistan responded immediately and flew in men with the
required equipment.”
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| President
Musharraf with Sri Lanka President Kumaratunga |
The
paper went on to say: “If Pakistan did not respond to Sri Lanka’s
SOS, the country's history may have taken a different course.”
Musharraf
took pains to explain that his country's relations with Sri Lanka or
Bangladesh were not against India's interests. The current tour of the
Pakistani leader has been interpreted by observers as an attempt to
show India that Pakistan too has friends in the region. Musharraf had
visited the island-nation in October 1999 days before he took power in
Pakistan in a bloodless coup.
The
Pakistani team signed several free trade agreements with Sri Lanka
Wednesday, in a bid to boost mutual trade which stands at around $130
million at present.
President
Musharraf said that the Indo-Pak rivalry had harmed SAARC. He said
SAARC nations should ensure that the organization was not destroyed by
the rivalry.
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