SL prez Rajapaksa vows to crush terrorism
Matara
(Sri
Lanka),
Dec
26:
Vowing
to
crush
terrorism
in
Sri
Lanka,
President
Mahinda
Rajapaksa
today
said
the
Tamil
Tiger
rebels
should
be
defeated
militarily
before
finding
any
political
solution
to
the
bloody
ethnic
conflict.
''No
political
solution
is
possible
without
crushing
terrorism
completely.
Our
military
victories
are
clearing
way
for
a
lasting
political
solution,''
President
Rajapaksa
said
while
speaking
at
the
national
event
to
mark
the
third
anniversary
of
the
tsunami
disaster
in
the
Southern
Matara
district.
''The LTTE would be defeated militaraly and forced to accept a political solution after laying down weapons,'' President Rajapaksa said, minutes after ceremonially opening a Korean-funded bridge that was destroyed by the terror waves three years ago. ''I hope they (LTTE) understand this reality,'' President Rajapaksa, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, said.
It is exactly three years ago that the giant waves of tsunami destroyed two third of Sri Lanka's coastal belt leaving nearly 40,000 people killed and rendered one million homeless.
Although government has claimed that post-tsunami rebuilding is nearing completion with 80 per cent of the affected people being resettled, nearly 9,000 affected families are still living in temporary shelters.
President Rajapaksa said Sri Lanka has recovered from tsunami disaster like Japan after the World War II, although there were few thousands of families yet to be resettled including in the rebel-held Mullaitivu district.
''The way we recovered from the challenges posed by tsunami disaster, we will also overcome the challenges by terrorism,'' President Rajapaksa said, highlighting the military victories against the LTTE in the Eastern Sri Lanka.
He said that the international community has helped Sri Lanka immensely to recover from the tsunami disaster and his government's current military campaign against the LTTE has not deterred the foreign assistance to the island nation.
UNI