Rabble-rousers bound to fall apart - Governor Chandrasiri

Ridma Dissanayake and Rakshana Sriyantha

The Udayan newspaper said that the government has violated the rights of the Tamil people and they have to commemorate their relatives who died and went missing during the war period in its editorial on May 18 under the topic Non Erasable Memories of the War.

Commenting on this, Northern Provincial Governor Major General G.A.Chandrasiri said the Udayan should remember that there is no barrier to commemorate the Tamils who died or went missing during the war.

The Udayan said that as a result of the war, a large number of children lost their parents. Many youths lost their lives and a large number of children and youths had to suffer during their whole life time because of the war. The Udayan is making allegations against the government but they should think about the reasons which have caused for this issue to become serious", Governor Chandrasiri said.

"President Mahinda Rajapaksa understood the calamity which may happen during a war and lent his hands to LTTE leaders for peace just after he became the President. He tried to find a peaceful solution for the terrorist problem. He followed numerous strategies through various parties. But the LTTE leaders, including Welupillai Prabhakan, rejected peaceful means and selected the weapons as the solution for the conflict", he said.

"Terrorists began to intimidate civilians in war affected areas and violated the human rights of the people.

"President Rajapaksa had to launch a humanitarian operation to protect the people as the guardian of the country.

"The Udayan must remember that the government has spent a huge sum of money for the welfare of war affected persons. Rehabilitation programmes have been conducted for them. The government has also launched mega scale development programmes in war affected areas.

"Certain parties who have forgotten the lessons learnt by the three decades of terrorism are trying to create another conflict in the country. They will understand that their effort will never be a success", Governor Chandrasiri said.