Second Victory Day anniversary:
A victory for the whole of Sri Lanka – President
*‘The country celebrates the victory of
establishing the rights of every citizen by ensuring the Right to Life
of thousands of civilians , who were held as hostages by terrorists’
*‘The country is not ready to heed to
the demands of separatists or terrorists. No one can do anything in this country
without the consent of our people’
*‘The best way to meet our future
challenges is to strengthen national unity. The entire country
celebrated the victory over terrorism without hurting the feelings
of any community’
*‘Our responsibility is to preserve
this bond between communities. The only way to secure the freedom of
our land and this victory is to protect this great bond between
communities’
*‘War heroes who shed their blood for
this country, are today toiling for its development’
*‘We have been able to draw a new map
of Sri Lanka through the development revolution’
*‘The Interim recommendations by the
Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission have already been
implemented’
Sandasen MARASINGHE
“Having wiped out the world’s most ruthless terror organization and
having preserved the unity and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, we
are now in a position to proudly hoist the national flag. What we are
commemorating today is the ability of the Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and
other communities to live in unity in our land and the occasion of
freeing tens of thousands of Northern citizens who were held hostage by
the LTTE terrorists,” President Mahinda Rajapaksa said yesterday.
“The only way to secure the hard earned victory over the terrorists
by our valiant Security Forces two years ago and meet our future
challenges, is to strengthen national unity in the country,” he said.
The President made these observations while addressing the nation at
the Second Victory Day anniversary held at the Galle Face Green under
his patronage to celebrate the annihilation of the most ruthless
terrorist organization in the world, the LTTE,
and to pay respects to War Heroes who made the supreme sacrifice in
this operation to neutralize the LTTE.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa stated that he emphasized to all
political parties that it would be of no use to reopen the healing
wounds and to keep on digging up the past, creating hatred and
disharmony among the people.
The President also stated by now no single incident of communal
disharmony is reported in this country. He added that the Sinhalese
participate in the Vel processions and the Tamils in Jaffna in Sri
Sambuddhatva Jayanthi celebrations with greatest enthusiasm. “The
Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people participated in sightseeing the Vesak
decorations in Colombo without any discrimination,” President Mahinda
Rajapaksa stated. He added that it was the responsibility of all to
preserve the bond built up between the communities by themselves.
The President further stated that just by adding human rights to the
constitution, those rights would not be guaranteed to the people.
“If someone robs the right to life, it is only by preventing it, that
the right to life can be guaranteed. He added that the ceremony was
celebrate the victory of ensuring the right to life of thousands of
citizens in this country. This is the victory of freeing thousands of
civilians in the North who were held hostage.
The President also stated that the War Heroes were not confined to
barracks after the end of the humanitarian operation but utilized to
build the nation from the foreign service to beautifying the Colombo
City. “There is a truth we have to tell the world that is we haven’t
established forces to invade nations but to rebuild the country with
utmost commitment for the people”.
“We do not hesitate to ensure the democratic and human rights of the
citizens living in north and east. But we will not heed to the demands
of separatists or terrorists. When people in this country do not accept
their demands, they look for ways to make us bow down using foreign
influence,” President Rajapaksa said.
The President said that no one can do anything in this country
without the consent of the people. “It is only we who can solve our own
problems, and no one else, said President Mahinda Rajapaksa.“There is a
truth we have to tell the world. We did not build the Armed Forces to
invade countries.
What we have is an Armed Force committed to rebuild the country with
utmost commitment to the people. Today we celebrate the victory ensuring
the right of every citizen of the country to live in harmony. It is the
victory of freeing thousands of civilians in the north, who were held
hostage,” the President said.
He said that government was able to draw a new map of Sri Lanka
through the development revolution taking place in the country.
President Rajapaksa added that the North and East liberated by the
Security Forces is fast becoming prosperous.
As we removed the ‘border village’ from the Sri Lankan map, we are
now taking measures to delete ‘displaced and destitute’ from our
vocabulary. Many thousand acres of land sowed with landmines are now
being cultivated.
Thousands of displaced civilians were resettled with all the
facilities, from shelter, bedding to mosquito coils. Likewise,
reconstruction of North and East is a major development task in our
history, he added.’With rays of freedom rising in the north and east,
the rays of development are also dawning on people in those areas,’ the
President said.The President added that the people in those areas should
bear in mind that what we are rapidly rebuilding are the public
properties destroyed by terrorists.When we rebuild the North and East
destroyed by the terrorists, the world knows what the terrorists who are
in abroad did. Since the country was united with the death of the last
LTTE leader in Vellamulliwaikkal on May 19, these elements organized
campaigns against the motherland again.
They did not cease raising funds for terrorism and many other illegal
activities, the President added.’During the war they had heaps of money
for purchasing weapons and ships. With that huge amount of money the
terrorists continue to spread false rumors, conspire and spread false
propaganda against Sri Lanka,’ the President said.
‘Even though terrorism has been eradicated from Sri Lanka, terrorists
living in abroad continue to work to destroy our country. Those abroad,
misusing the democratic freedom and their right to vote in the countries
of their domicile, are influencing those countries against us in their
campaign against us,” the President said.
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