Govt identified hidden potentials of soldiers - Defence Secretary

Sigiriya group corr.

The Government has correctly identified hidden potentials of our soldiers and leadership qualities and made use of them to decimate the world’s most ruthless terrorists who raged a 30 year war debilitating economic and social conditions of our country. Working as a team was another factor for our success. President Mahinda Rajapaksa in every sense a true leader, who identified the most essentials of the human values and accomplished the noble task of bringing peace, prosperity, integrity and sovereignty to our country, said Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

He was the Chief Guest at the Kandy Mahamaya BV colours awarding ceremony at the College auditorium recently.

The Defence Secretary said “you have invited me to this occasion which I consider as a tribute to the members of the Armed Forces and the Police who made great sacrifices to have our country saved from the LTTE clutches.”

He said “learning about leadership is a very important factor and I find such qualities of leadership and potentials that could be developed are rightly manifested by the students of Mahamaya. I advise you to have them developed to serve mother Lanka.”

Rajapaksa said leadership is synonymous with decipline our heroes of the Armed Forces maintained strict decipline, honouring the humanitarians law. This made our victory more purified.

The valiant soldiers who engaged in this war did not expect any personal gain. They had the sole idea of arriving at the expected goal. This itself set an example for others, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said.

The Defence Secretary said this could be clearly seen what one look at the cost of the war. We lost 6,000 for our soldiers, another 5,000 became disabled while 20,000 were injured. This is a substantial loss.

This is not only a war victory. This is an event, we should be proud of. Sri Lanka has been able to gain full independence under one flag, the Defence Secretary said.