New beginning

As Sri Lankans we strongly endorse the bold decision taken by the President in 2006 to free our country once and for all from the brutal terrorist forces, it is indeed very heartening to note the total justification of that decision, Investment Promotion Minister Navin Dissanayake said.

Freeing this country of the terrorists marks a new beginning of our history. It should be our fervent hope and determination that we progress forward as one nation under one flag, shedding our petty differences.

It is no secret that throughout our history our Tamil brothers and sisters have had to confront many obstacles and injustices, both of political and social origin.

We must make sure that the death of one Prabhakaran will not give rise to another Prabhakaran. My late father made his own efforts to bring about a solution to this burning issue through the Indo-Lanka Accord.

We shall succeed in achieving finality on this through the able and far-sighted leadership of our President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, he said in a message. My father had the firm opinion that the terrorists must be paid with their own coin.

That is why he was assassinated by the Tiger terrorists. During the Presidential Election campaign in 1994, my father visited India and obtained their fullest support and concurrence to eliminate the Tiger menace from this country. When the Tigers got wind of this they launched a conspiracy to eliminate him.

The country lost a great leader and we lost a loving father. He never made any attempts to enter into secret covenants with the Tigers.

We witnessed over the last few months the blatant efforts made by some international organisations to halt the war efforts of Sri Lanka by pumping oxygen to the dying Tiger forces through ceasefire agreements.