Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has praised the country’s military for ending the conflict with the LTTE in 2009 and ushering in peace through a “humanitarian operation”, saying there was “no hatred, anger or revenge” involved in the nearly three-decade-long brutal civil war.
In a statement issued to mark the War Heroes Day on Wednesday, Rajapaksa, who is also the defence minister, asserted that the armed forces, who “safeguarded the freedom and territorial integrity” of the country will never be forgotten, under any circumstances.
“Our armed forces put an end to the war and brought peace to the country through a humanitarian operation. There was no hatred, anger or revenge in it. Therefore, there is no room for racism or any other form of extremism in the motherland where peace was established. We regard it as a unique value in Sri Lankan society,” said Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was the Defence Secretary during the conflict with the Tamil Tigers.
The president, who is still facing pressure to resign for the country’s current economic crisis, said the special day will be commemorated this year by recalling the immense sacrifices made by the armed forces, The Island newspaper reported on Thursday.
“None of us expected the crisis situation we are going through today. The economic crisis has expanded towards a political and social upheaval,” he said, apparently referring to the resignation of his elder brother and prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on May 9 and the unprecedented violence after that.
“Under any circumstances, we will not disregard the policy towards safeguarding sovereignty and independence of this country. That is because our desire is to protect the motherland above all else,” the embattled Sri Lankan president said.
On Wednesday, some Sri Lankans celebrated the 13th anniversary of the brutal war as War Heroes Day on Wednesday while others commemorated the deaths of thousands of war victims as Tamils Genocide Day.
Then-president Mahinda Rajapaksa on May 18, 2009 declared the end of a 26-year war in which over 100,000 people were
killed and millions of Sri Lankans, mainly minority Tamils, displaced as refugees inside the country and abroad.
In the bitterly-fought conflict that started in 1983, the island nation’s military ended the brutal war by killing the leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which fought for an independent state for Tamils in the country’s North and East.
The Sri Lankan government has declared May 18 as the War Heroes Day to remember the war heroes who fought in the civil war.
However, the minority Tamils commemorated the war-end anniversary by remembering their deceased relatives in Mulliwaikal, a village in the northern district of Mullaiteevu where the final fight had ended.
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