Certain elements trying to stifle country's progress - DEW

Ridma Dissanayake

"Certain local and foreign elements are trying to retard and stifle Sri Lanka's progress by making various baseless accusations",Human Resources Senior Minister D.E.W.Gunasekara said.

The minister was addressing a special press briefing at the Mahaweli Centre yesterday.

The minister said these foreign elements are making false accusations about human rights violations by Sri Lanka during the last stages of the humanitarian mission during the terrorist conflict. They are angry as they tried their best to halt the conflict and save the LTTE from being annihilated. They made several proposals to Sri Lanka to heed their instructions and halt the war against LTTE terrorism. They wanted to get involved in this matter but the government did not give in ,he added.

"If we listened to them at that time our country would have been divided into two parts and we would have had to live as a colonial nation. Certain Western elements had overestimated the terrorists and underestimated us during the conflict period. They are now trying to create a conflict situation in our country by destroying the peaceful and calm environment prevailing in the country",he said.

Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare Minister Dilan Perera said that the massive islandwide protest to be held today is not against the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

"Certain countries who have appreciated the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report also stand against Sri Lanka at this moment.

"But we believe that they will support us even at the last moment in this matter as they did on previous times.",the minister said.

Finance and Planning Deputy Minister Geethanjana Gunawardena said all these efforts are to protect the peace which Sri Lanka won while sacrificing thousands of human lives.

"Certain Western elements are trying to interfere in our internal affairs. But we kindly urge them to not to interfere in our internal affairs as there is no need for international involvement. We are quite capable of looking after our own matters.",he said.

"We have already established peace and democracy in the Northern and Eastern provinces after ending the war.

"The government has launched a number of development programmes in every sphere to uplift the people's living standards. We are on a rapid development track and urge all foreign elements to refrain from sabotaging our progress",the minister further stated.