A great achievement - Vijitha Herath

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

The defeat inflicted on LTTE terrorist outfit, which has been a bane in the country for the past 30 years, is a pivotal point in Sri Lankan political history, to have been achieved by the entire nation, The Chairman, Select Committee of Parliament for Investigation of the Operations of NGOs, Vijitha Herath (MP) said.

"It is the result of all communities in Sri Lanka- the Muslims, Tamils, Burghers, Malays and Sinhalese 'rallying- round' with unwavering determinism and commitment to defeat LTTE terrorism and separatism," he said.

"The people rejected LTTE's "Eelam" demand for a separate state in spite of various 'bombings' carried out by the LTTE killing hundreds of civilians to force the public to accept 'division'. The public vehemently opposed LTTE sympathizers and international players supporting them , who brought peace solutions that were tailor-made to support the course of Eelam.

The win over LTTE was achieved after passing several hurdles. The public played an important role and acted intelligibly to defeat the Interim Administration Proposals, the Cease-fire Agreement and P-TOMS Tsunami Relief Boards. Asked how significant he thought that the leadership given by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and the Commanders of the security forces has been important in achieving a victory over a terrorist organization that is known as the most ruthless terrorist organization in the world, Herath stressed , "it was a great achievement."

With the LTTE been defeated, there will be added responsibilities. It will be essential to make the liberated Tamil citizens to speak out for they have never had any freedom of speech under the LTTE.

They should be given a chance to speak out their problems so that we may give proper solutions when it comes to resettle them.

These people have lived in fear under LTTE terrorist rule for many years and they have to be guided to understand democracy to live as free citizens have to establish trust and unity with them

Also, we must bear in mind that those NGO s and INGOs who have been nurturing the LTTE for the past three decades, can return with different agendas and ideas.

We have to be prepared to face them and similar international interventions, which may still lurk behind the shadows of the LTTE's downfall, to nurture their theories.