'Opposition Leader has disgraced Armed Forces'

Nadira Gunatilleke and Uditha Kumarasinghe

Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has made several anti-Sri Lanka and pro-LTTE statements during his recent tour to India, Information and Media Minister and Cabinet Spokesman Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said.

"The gravity of it is that he had made those comments in Chennai where a lot of LTTE supporters are based.

The one and only objective of the Opposition Leader was to promote the LTTE by making such statements," Minister Yapa told the Cabinet news briefing. "The Opposition Leader had contempt for the war heroes and their sacrifices. He had disgraced the heroic Armed Forces of Sri Lanka. Today anybody can see that the Forces are on the threshold of victory."

"Now he says if the war can be finished quickly, there is no need for a political solution for the ethnic problem," he added.

He was addressing the weekly Cabinet press briefing at the Government Information Department Auditorium yesterday. Minister Yapa said that the Government always believes that a political solution is required for the ethnic conflict and that is why the Government established the APRC in the first place.

Minister Yapa said that while the Opposition Leader says that there is no need for a political solution for the ethnic conflict if the war can be finished soon, one of his allies, Mangala Samaraweera says negotiations are the only way out, the opposite meaning of what the Opposition Leader said.

"Their statements are very contradictory and the people cannot understand the reality of their contrasting ideas. They never understand the heartbeat of the people and that is why they get defeated at the elections."