Govt., Forces doing utmost to protect lives, properties - Media
Minister
Nadira Gunatilleke
The Government and the Security Forces are doing their level best to
protect the lives and properties of the people from the barbaric acts of
the desperate LTTE. The duty of everybody must be to uplift the
psychological strength of the Armed Forces and the public, said
Information and Media Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Anura Priyadarshana
Yapa.
Addressing the weekly Cabinet press briefing held at the Government
Information Department Auditorium, Colombo 5 yesterday, Minister Yapa
said that the Government is doing its best at the moment to wipe out
terrorism from Sri Lanka and has been doing so since it came to power.
The LTTE shows its cowardice through ruthless attacks on civilians.
The Government has taken all the precautions to protect human lives and
property. The Government believes that its prime duty is protecting the
people belonging to all ethnicities, he added.
"The public should be well aware of the existing situation and be
vigilant but this should not be interpreted as scaring or terrifying the
public. The Government will pay compensation to all affected by the LTTE
bomb attacks but the value of the lives lost cannot be estimated in
terms of money. Now everyone including the SLMM has to accept the
reality and the truth about the ruthless LTTE," Minister Yapa said.
Explaining the recent barbaric attacks carried out on innocent
civilians by the LTTE, Minister Yapa said that in Kebithigollewa alone
the LTTE has killed 80 civilians by exploding claymore mines on buses on
two occasions (day before yesterday and June last year) and killing
around 30 innocent civilians with bomb attacks at Nittambuwa,
Ambalangoda and Ampara," he said.
The Sri Lankan Government started to pay attention to the problems of
the Tamil community a long time ago and when the Provincial Councils
were introduced only the LTTE rejected it.
But the LTTE continuously sabotaged the solutions by assassinating
President R.Premadasa and by trying to assassinate former President
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.
It showed that the LTTE never believed in or wanted to find a
settlement through discussion. Only the Sri Lankan Government always
wanted it. During the CFA the LTTE killed all army intelligence officers
and the informants of the Army living in the North and East. The LTTE
trained their cadres and collected arms to strengthen their capability,
Minister Yapa said.
The right of every democratically elected Government is protecting
people and their property. Communities develop their identities along
with the economical, cultural and social development processes of a
country and not through a group that kill innocent people. The APRC will
come out with its proposals soon.
Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said that all the
organisations who made a big hue and cry when the Sri Lanka Air Force
bombs legitimate LTTE targets now keep quiet about the LTTE's barbaric
killings of innocent civilians.
Those organisations only see one or two civilians injured by accident
during attacks on LTTE targets and they never see the hundreds of
innocent civilians killed by the LTTE in very barbaric manner.
The SLAF never targets civilians intentionally but the LTTE always
kills innocent civilians in a ruthless manner, he added. |