‘Govt will not bow to external pressure’

LAKSHMI DE SILVA

The Armed Forces will not use artillery or heavy weapons on the LTTE terrorists who are now hemmed in within a small stretch of land 13 kilometres long and five kilometres wide especially since there were civilians held by the LTTE in that little stretch of land Transport and Railways Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said yesterday.

The Minister was addressing the UPFA press conference in Colombo.

He said the Armed Forces continued their humanitarian operations and yesterday too another 800 civilians crossed over to the Government administered area and 22 LTTE cadres surrendered to the army.

The Government will not bow down to any external pressures to stop the operations against terrorism. Any party could give any interpretation but the Government will not deviate from its policy of defeating terrorists.

If the Al Qaeda leader was found hiding anywhere what would any powerful army do? The situation in our country was similar, he observed.

The Tamil people of the north were Sri Lankan citizens and after 25 years they had regained independence and the LTTE had now become refugees in their own territory. The Government was responsible only for the citizens of this country and our armed forces were literate, disciplined and respected human rights, he said.

It was the main Opposition that went round the world telling the international community that human rights were violated in our country.

When Muttiah Muralitharan was playing a semi-final match at Trinidad the UNP leader with Mano Ganeshan had allegedly said Muralitharan would have been abducted if he was at home. Muralitharan was an icon known to the whole world and they used his name to tarnish the country’s image abroad.

That was how the vicious propaganda to the outside world was propagated the Minister noted.