President decries false propaganda

Dharma Sri Abeyratne and Raja Waidyasekera, Tissamaharama Special Corr.

Certain leaders who want to internationalise Sri Lanka’s domestic problems without trying to solve them locally are trying to spread false propaganda against the Government which eradicated terrorism that dogged the country for three decades, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said.

The President addressed delegates of SLFP Women’s Organisations in Matara and Hambantota districts at Medamulana yesterday.

Nearly 5,000 women delegates attended the meeting. The President who thanked the delegates for their presence at short notice said the mandate people had given him at the Presidential Elections had enabled him to eradicate the terrorist menace.

The President who said the Government which could tackle terrorism had the same capability to steer the country towards development and progress said the Government formulated programs such as Mathata Thitha because it loved the country and its people more than mere economic and material gain.

The Government would never hesitate to penalise racketeers bent on corrupting society for their personal gain.

The Government always considered the Matara and Hambantota districts as a single district because the massive number of votes cast by voters in these two districts had enabled him to muster the majority needed to become President at the last elections.

President Rajapaksa said 26,000 War Heroes laid down their lives to protect the country during the anti-terrorist war.

More than 5,000 others were disabled in action. The honour for liberating the country from terrorism should go to the War Heroes and their commanders as well as to the mothers and wives who allowed their children and spouses to join the Forces to defend their motherland.

Today certain interested parties were trying to frame war crime charges against our heroic forces who saved the country from a savage outfit.

They were trying to do this by collecting false newspaper reports and propaganda caused out by certain anti-national NGOs as evidence as well as accounts inimical to the national interest given by certain political leaders during visits abroad.

Therefore, Southern voters had a duty to teach these anti-national forces and conspiratives a good lesson by ensuring a convincing victory for the UPFA at the forthcoming election. A vote for the UPFA would tell the world that the people endorsed the action taken by War Heroes to liberate the country form terrorism and they would not allow any one to summon them before a war crimes tribunal.

Ministers Maithripala Sirisena, Chamal Rajapaksa, Prof. G.L. Peiris, Bandula Gunawardane, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Sumedha G. Jayasena, Rohitha Abeygunawardane and Mahindananda Aluthgamage and Parliamentarian Nirupama Rajapaksa and several UPFA candidates were present.