By P.K. Balachandran, IANS
Colombo : President Mahinda Rjapaksa Monday said Sri Lanka enjoys the trust of its neighbours and unflinching support of the international community in its fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) terrorist group.
In his speech at the main function to celebrate the island nation’s 60th Independence Day here Monday, Rajapaksa said: “Our neighbours trust us and the international community’s confidence in us has not been reduced one iota.”
This was in answer to criticism that his no-holds-barred fight against the Tamil Tigers had given rise to serious human rights abuses against the minority Tamils and that because of this, Sri Lanka had got isolated from the rights-conscious international community.
It was also said that India was displeased with the slow progress of his efforts to find a political solution to the conflict between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils.
“The civilized world understands that we are fighting terrorism, the most ruthless terrorist group in the world,” Rajapaksa told a select audience of Sri Lankans, foreign diplomats and some members of the public on a beachfront avenue.
The president pointed out that the developed world was itself facing a threat from terrorism.
He denied the charge that Sri Lanka was run only for the benefit of the majority Sinhalese community and that the war against the LTTE was being fought only for the benefit of that community.
“We did not win independence only for one community, but for the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and Malays,” he said.
He congratulated the security forces for liberating the Tamil-speaking eastern province from the clutches of the LTTE and expressed confidence in their ability to liberate the Tamil-speaking north also.
But he hastened to add that these could not be construed as a victory of the Sinhalese-speaking people of the south only. The people of the north and the east also had reasons to feel greatly relieved.
The president said that elections in the eastern province would be held to enable the Tamils and Muslims there to express themselves freely.
On his recent decision to “fully implement” a power sharing system already in the Sri Lankan constitution as a first step towards solving the ethnic conflict, Rajapaksa said he believed in doing what could be implemented.
“Any solution should be based on what can be implemented,” he reasoned.
On the decision to strengthen the provincial councils system already existing in the constitution as the first step towards a political solution of the ethnic conflict, he said the idea was to “bring the provincial councils nearer to the people”.
Rajapaksa said that unlike his government, previous governments had not been bold enough to implement their promises.
Referring to the difficulties the common Sri Lankan was going through, despite a seven percent growth in the GDP in 2007, he said these difficulties were not permanent. “I will not allow them to become long-term,” he said.
Further more, short-term difficulties would lead to long-term benefits, he added.
Rajapaksa said economic growth was important, but he would not “betray the motherland” while achieving growth.