Monday, 4 February 2008
Independence Day speech(FULL TEXT) by the President
Ven. Maha Sangha, Members of the Clergy of other religions, Hon. Prime Minister , Hon. Speaker,
Hon. Chief Justice and Members of Judiciary, Hon. Ministers and Members of Parliament,
Governors, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Secretary to the President and all Officers of State,
The Chief of Defence Staff and Commanders of the Armed Forces and the Inspector General of Police,
Mothers, Fathers and Dear Children,
My friends who join me in celebrating the 60th anniversary of Independence.
On this historic day we witness the proud commemoration of the 60th anniversary of freedom of a great nation. I say with gratitude that we achieved this dignity and greatness as the Sri Lankan nation, not only through the sacrifices of today's heroes, but also due to the immense sacrifices of our forefathers throughout history. Let us make this the opportunity to first bow our heads in salutation to all those who sacrificed their blood and sweat for the country.
Friends,
I believe freedom is something that has to be made meaningful day by day. We have now arrived at an era where we have decisively dedicated ourselves to enrich the substance of freedom.
As I see it, among important measures that should be taken to enrich freedom are the defeat of terrorism, development of the country, and consolidating trust among all peoples.
Just as every drop of water released from the Mavil Aru anicut since its liberation, every plant we grow and nurture in our villages under the theme "Let us grow to build the country" is a gigantic step to nurture the country's independence and freedom.
During the last two years we have as a nation brought forth a very important and decisive factor to enrich the substance of freedom. It is an indicator that has so far never been used to measure a country's well-being or development. Just as the oil reserves that would be harnessed in the future from the sea off Mannar, and the electricity that would be generated from the Norochcholai and Upper Kotmale power projects, this indicator will have great import for Sri Lanka in the future.
This is none other than the patriotism, and love for the country that has emerged among our people today.
Our challenge today is to be true to the nation and maintain this patriotic fervor of our people, without letting it to be subjugated by political party differences, and political interests.
The competition among us should not be among the parties to which we give leadership. Our struggle should not be between the Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim communities. Our disagreements should not be among Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Christianity. Friends, our struggle should be between the past and the future; between what is wrong, and what is correct; between hate and Maitriya (Loving Kindness).
Friends, the Sri Lankan nation had to live with fearsome experiences of the terrible tragedy and cancer of terrorism for three of the six decades since independence. Infinite are the loss of lives, property and opportunities due to it. However, I am convinced that we can restore the lost opportunities for progress instead of lamenting and sighing, heaping blame on politicians and the motherland, while looking at and envying the progress made by other countries. I consider such behaviour as both treachery and a betrayal of the country.
Is there any meaning in comparing pre-independence Singapore, or the previous condition of any other country with our present status? We must as a nation stop regurgitating outdated thinking that is harmful to the well being of the nation.
The challenge bestowed to us by history is the defeat of terrorism and the development of the country. You are aware of how most governments that accepted this challenge, later handed it over to its successor, as a heavy and unbearable burden.
Friends, during the last two years, however, we faced this challenge squarely without avoiding it. Our security forces are today achieving victories against terrorism unprecedented in history. Terrorism is receiving an unprecedented defeat.
In less than two years we have liberated the large Eastern Province that was under the clutches of the terrorists and confined them to two districts, only. It will not be wrong to say they are confined to one-and-a-half districts. But Friends, this cannot be a victory of the southern people alone.
When this becomes a victory of the people in the south, we must make it an even greater victory for people in the north. When the people of the south are relieved by the defeat of terrorism, the people of the north have cause for even greater relief.
We are already taking steps to enable the people in the Eastern Province liberated from terrorism, to enjoy their democratic rights. We are expeditiously holding elections that will ensure to people hitherto subdued in silence, the exercise of their democratic right to elect one's own representatives.
We are also rapidly developing these areas that were subject to the extortion and ransom demands of terrorists.
You know that the rate of development of the Eastern Province is faster than the rate of fall of terrorist bastions today. The provision of electricity, water, housing, schools and roads is being accelerated. We want the people of the North and East to be victorious.
It is the same with the political solution.
You know that we did not win independence for the benefit of one community alone. The Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Malays and all participated in the freedom struggle. None of us wanted freedom for a divided country. We all wanted freedom for a single country.
From the time of Handy Perinpanayagam, leader of the Jaffna Youth League who first called for full independence for Sri Lanka, to the time of Dr. T. B. Jayah, and Ponnambalam Ramanathan, whose statue stands at the Presidential Secretariat premises today; all our people were in the freedom struggle. The problem today is that there is no space for the emergence of such heroes. If there were such heroes who fought for the independence of a single country, they would have fallen victim to LTTE guns. Therefore, we will liberate the North from the clutches of terrorism and also provide a political solution and bring political freedom to the people there.
It is only if we act in this manner that we will we once again see the emergence of leaders from the North and the East like those heroes who participated in the freedom struggle. This commitment of ours is to go forward as a single, unitary state.
Friends, our solution must be based on what could be implemented in this country. We cannot offer solutions that are experiments. We cannot experiment with solutions when so much blood has been shed and tens of thousands of lives have been lost. That is why we selected a solution which can be implemented and about which we have experience. This practical solution is to bring the provincial administration closer to the people within the framework of our Constitution.
Friends, we also have a fine opportunity in this instance, to provide an example to the world.
As a policy we do not have cosmetic and shallow associations with the western countries. Our relations with them are true and real.
We have established new relations with our neighboring states, Arab states, and Buddhist states. Our neighboring states trust us. Our problems and issues are also problems and issues of our neighboring states.
The confidence placed in us by the international community has not diminished one iota.
Whatever is said by those people who make a show of their international connections, there has been no reduction whatever in the aid received by us. We have been able to obtain and use aid that is beneficial to the development of the country. The civilized world today, accepts that Sri Lanka is putting one full- stop to world terrorism.
The defeat of the most ruthless terrorists of the world in Sri Lanka is also a victory of the developed world, which too is a victim of terrorism. We are also fully committed to carry on this battle while safeguarding Human Rights. This is the reality.
Friends, you know that every government had to forget their election pledges even before the expiry of one year in office.
This is because either those policies did not suit the reality of the country, or else they were not bold enough to implement them, however great the support they received from the people. Or else, there was no commitment.
You know that we have implemented to the letter the policies contained in the election manifesto approved by the people at the last Presidential Election. All believed that the stopping of alcohol and drug abuse, the non-issuance of new liquor bar licenses and the prohibition of smoking in public places would be controversial and cannot be implemented. It was also believed by many that it was a law of world economics that the economy could not be maintained without divesting ownership of state enterprises. There was also the belief that identifying as terrorists, those who kill the Sinhala people by the thousands, would lead to dangerous consequences. In short, two years ago, no one believed that terrorists could be defeated. But, during the last two years we made it a reality in our motherland.
We have not abandoned the Mahinda Chinthana that was endorsed by the people. We shall not abandon it. Therefore, we say that we shall continue to defend the majority opinion of the people of this country.
During the last two years, we were able to solve many chronic issues that were postponed as being irresolvable. We need not stress that the resolution of these issues was related to the country's independence. Strengthening health, education and the national economy shows the way forward to a better future and an independent country.
Today, the whole country knows that the village exists and is awakening. Factories once closed, such as Thulhiriya have been re-opened. CTB buses are back on the roads with the Lion logo. The CWE and the cooperative movement are being revived. Good roads as in the western countries have now being laid even to remote villages, under "Maga Neguma". Thousands of new houses have been built in the plantations. Potable water projects could be seen in most villages. For the first time since colonial times, we have now begun the construction of an international airport and harbour. Fly-overs and hundreds of bridges and roads are being built. All these bridges are built by Sri Lankan engineers. Earlier, foreign experts were given contracts to oversee construction of our dams; in a country that was famous for its irrigation and reservoir construction. Now, our own Sri Lankan engineers are constructing huge reservoirs at Moragahakanda, Deduru Oya, and Weheragala.
We are building a country where the farmer could smile as he reaps the harvest from his cinnamon, betel, maize and rice cultivations. Venerable Sirs, when our people construct their own roads and reservoirs, when they receive a good price for their crops, when they consume their own food, they begin to feel that they are not strangers in one's own land.
We have given our nation every opportunity to link with the technologically developed world. We have been able to raise computer literacy in the country to 25% without trumpeting about it, in a country that did not attach much importance to it. During the last two years we have recorded the highest economic growth of 7 per cent after 30 years.
What is essential is to carry these achievements forward. We shall do so as a country that is not subjugated or frightened and open to exploitation or extortion. We shall do safeguarding our national identity and independence. Whatever difficulties we encounter we shall not betray our motherland.
We know that our people, as those in other countries, face the burdens of a high cost of living due to world food shortages and the rise in oil prices.
But as the Head of State who has ensured a difficult victory in our motherland, I say that these difficulties are not permanent. I say with responsibility that I will not allow them to be difficulties even in the long-term. It must be said that short-term difficulties lead to long term benefits and a life free of oppression.
Let us understand the hardships we face due to our efforts to raise our country to a significant place in the world. We are ready to create a country that will utilize to the maximum our ocean resources that are several times the size of the land mass of our motherland.
I am ready to create a society that will utilize to the maximum the resources of our country.
The task before us is to make maximum use of our natural resources in our skies, our land, our beaches and the sea. We have the huge task of making every inch of land productive and extract from nature all resources needed for a free country. I am convinced that our Sri Lankan nation has the strength to achieve this. Accordingly, our resolve will take us to the creation of a truly free and independent nation in our motherland.
I wish you all a happy and successful future.
May you be blessed by the Triple Gem!
Source: defence.lk
17 Tamils arrested in Nugegoda
Seventeen Tamil civilians, majority of them workers at business establishments and staying in lodges, were taken into custody in a cordon and search operation conducted by the Sri Lanka government security forces at Nugegoda, a suburb in Colombo, from Sunday evening till early morning Monday, sources said.
Nearly three hundred houses were searched, and more than eight thousand persons were interrogated during the search operation.
Work places, shops and lodges were also searched. The operation was carried out following the discovery of explosives from a telephone booth located in Nugegoda, police sources said.
Meanwhile, the police arrested three persons who are residents of Batticaloa and Kaathankudy in eastern province in connection with the bomb blast that took place at Dehiwela zoo on Sunday morning.
The suspects are being detained in the Dehiwala police station and being interrogated by the Terrorist Intelligence Division (TID), sources said.
Source: Tamilstar
Sri Lanka Marks Independence, Says Rebels Face Defeat
By Paul Tighe
Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka, marking the 60th anniversary of independence from Britain, said Tamil rebels are fighting their last battle and two bombings at the weekend that killed more than 30 civilians demonstrate their desperation.
Security forces ``have reached the last phase in eliminating terrorism from our nation,'' the Media Center for National Security said in a statement today. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam group ``is fighting its last battle'' after being driven from the eastern region.
The government blamed the LTTE for a blast on a bus that killed 20 people two days ago and an attack by a female suicide bomber on a train in the capital, Colombo, in which 11 people died yesterday. The LTTE hasn't commented on the attacks.
The Tamil Tigers now hold bases only in Sri Lanka's north after losing control of the Eastern Province in July. The LTTE has been fighting for 25 years for a separate homeland in the South Asian island nation, a conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people.
Terrorism is facing an ``unprecedented defeat'' in Sri Lanka, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said in an Independence Day speech today.
``The Sri Lankan nation had to live with fearsome experiences of the terrible tragedy and cancer of terrorism for three of the six decades since independence,'' Rajapaksa said, according to an e-mailed statement.
Training Base
The bus blast took place at Dambulla in north-central Sri Lanka and the suicide bomber blew herself up in Colombo's Fort Railway station yesterday, the Defense Ministry said.
Security forces arrested 17 Tamil civilians in a search operation in Colombo after the train attack, TamilNet reported on its Web site, citing unidentified police officials. As many as 300 houses were searched, it said
Sri Lanka's air force last week attacked an LTTE jungle base in the northeast used to train suicide bombers. The government said a bomber killed three people in the city of Jaffna on Jan. 31.
A female suicide bomber blew herself up, killing one person, in an attack inside the offices of Douglas Devananda, the minister for social services, in Colombo, on Nov. 28. A parcel bomb exploded the same day in the city's Nugegoda district, killing 18 people.
Political Settlement
Sri Lanka's government says it wants to reach a political settlement on the issue of Tamil separatism while eradicating terrorism in the north.
It says it won't consider any peace settlement that would divide the country of 20 million people. Tamils make up 11.9 percent of the population and Sinhalese almost 74 percent, according to a 2001 census.
An all-party forum has proposed creating an interim council in the Northern Province under a power-sharing agreement based on a 1987 constitutional amendment creating provincial councils.
``We selected a solution which can be implemented and about which we have experience,'' Rajapaksa said in his address today. ``This practical solution is to bring the provincial administration closer to the people within the framework of our constitution.''
The LTTE, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union and India, rejected the amendment in 1988, saying it left too much power with the national Parliament.
The government is trying to find a durable solution to the ethnic problem through democratic means, the Media Center said in its statement today.
``Our independence struggle was not waged for one community, one group or one party alone,'' it said. ``That struggle was carried out collectively by all communities together, including the Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher and Malay peoples.''
Source: Bloomberg
Bomb warning ahead of Sri Lanka Independence parade
By Simon Gardner
COLOMBO (Reuters) - A caller claiming to be from a group Sri Lanka's military says is a wing of the Tamil Tigers on Monday warned of bomb attacks on Independence Day celebrations due to take place in the capital Colombo within hours.
Sri Lanka's military said the group, Ellalan Forces, was a codename sometimes used by Tamil Tiger rebels behind attacks in the capital like one on Sunday when 11 people were killed in a railway station bombing.
The caller was unknown to Reuters and hung up when asked if he was linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The Tigers were not immediately reachable for comment.
Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the armed forces were expecting the rebels to try and mount attacks.
"There have been recoveries of suicide jackets and an LTTE cadre (fighter) last week. They are trying to disrupt the independence celebrations," he said. "We are expecting some kind of sabotage activity from the Tigers.
"Ellalan forces ... are those operating in Colombo," he added. "It sounds genuine. It is the Tigers."
A man claiming to be from the group called Reuters in January 1996 one minute before suspected Tigers rammed a truck packed with explosives into the Central Bank in Colombo, killing up to 100 people and wounding 1,400.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa is due to oversee an exhibition of military might in the capital on Monday morning, when tanks and thousands of troops will parade in the city, fighter jets will fly overhead and attack boats sail by to mark the 60th anniversary of independence from colonial ruler Britain.
The military is already on high alert after a series of bombings blamed on the Tigers in recent weeks, including Sunday's suicide bombing at the island's main train station in the capital which killed 11 and wounded 92.
"Please, be careful. There are going to be bombs in Colombo in some places," the anonymous caller told Reuters, saying he represented 'Ellalan Forces' -- a little known group the military identified as a codename for Tiger fighters operating in the capital.
"In some places we have fixed bombs to target Independence Day celebrations."
Source: Reuters
Sri Lankan team’s security beefed up
The Sri Lankan cricket team’s security in Australia has been heightened after some unruly fans in Hobart attacked spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan with an egg.
“The Australian authorities have apologised for the incident and the Sri Lankan team’s security has been beefed up,” Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) secretary K. Mathivanan said.
Showing no let-up in their hostility towards Muralitharan, a group of fans threw an egg on his face in Hobart on Friday night.
The incident marked a new low in Aussie fans’ turbulent relations with Muralitharan.
Mathivanan said Cricket Australia will also keep a close watch on crowd behaviour during the ongoing tri-series in which Sri Lanka is one of the teams along with Australia and India. “Australian authorities will keep an eye on the hotel’s security. They have already announced that any misbehaving fan would be thrown out of the ground,” Mathivanan said.
Muralitharan has had a history of hostility with the Australian spectators, who have jeered him on previous tours, forcing him to stop going Down Under for some time.
The off-spinner was no-balled by Aussie umpires and the bowler had to undergo laboratory tests to prove the legality of his bowling action.
Source: The Hindu
US blames Tamil Tigers for Sri Lanka blasts
The US Sunday "strongly" condemned the bomb blasts in Sri Lanka and blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for the attacks just ahead of the country's independence day Monday.
"The United States strongly condemns the terrorist bombing on Feb 3 at Fort railway station and Dehiwela Zoo in Colombo, and on Feb 2 in a bus in Dambulla," a release from the US embassy here said.
The attacks bore "all the hallmarks of the LTTE, clearly targeting innocent civilians to foster an atmosphere of fear prior to Sri Lanka's independence day celebrations", the release said.
The US appealed to all parties in the Sri Lankan conflict to avoid killing or injuring civilians. It reiterated Washington's stand that there could only be a political solution to the prolonged conflict.
Source: indianmuslims.info
Sri Lanka to screen trains, buses from north
Sri Lanka Sunday said that buses coming from the troubled north would be stopped at the border between the Tamil-dominated region and the Sinhalese-speaking south, following the blast at Colombo's main railway station that killed 11 people and injured over 100.
Passengers and goods heading for towns in the south would be stopped at Medawachchiya on the border and would be transferred into separate buses after due checking for bombs.
Earlier, the government had stopped the Vavuniya-Colombo 'Yal Devi' express train.
Eleven people, including women and children, were killed and 103 injured Sunday afternoon when a female suicide bomber detonated herself at the Fort railway station here.
The suicide bomber had arrived by a train from Medawachchiya.
Ever since the eastern districts of Batticaloa and Amparai were cleared of the Tamil Tiger rebels, they had difficulty in getting access to Colombo. This was the reason that, according to security officials, Colombo witnessed very few blasts in the past year.
But the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) started using the northern routes, and had established mini-bases in the areas north of Colombo like Wattala, which have a sizeable Tamil population. A few suicide jackets were recovered from Wattala recently.
Source: www.indianmuslims.info
Heavy clashes in Sri Lanka kill 46 Tigers and two soldiers, military says
Heavy fighting erupted along the battle lines in Northern Sri Lanka killed at least 46 Tiger rebels and two soldiers yesterday, the Media Center for National Security said today.
Seven Tigers were killed in separate confrontations between the rebels and security forces yesterday ahead of defence lines in the Andankulam area in Welioya, MCNS said.
Two soldiers also died while two others received injuries in a confrontation at Ethawetunuwewa, Welioya, the military reported.
Heavy fighting erupted in Vavuniya area killed at least twenty Tigers in separate incidents while another 19 Tiger rebels were killed in fighting along the battlefronts in Mannar and Welioya area, MCNS reported.
Two soldiers were injured yesterday in Killai area, Jaffna due to an anti- personnel mine explosion.
Source: Colombopost
