COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said on Friday his Government was "committed" to upholding the principle of democratic freedom in governance.

Speaking at the 75th birth anniversary of Sarvodaya leader A.T. Ariyaratne, at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute hours after the assassination of TNA MP Nadarajah Raviraj, Mr. Rajapaksa said he was the leader of all the people of Sri Lanka, irrespective of ethnicity, religion or any other differences.

A statement by the President's Secretariat quoted him as saying everyone must have the right to speak out and express one's ideas freely, in keeping with the ideals of a democratic society.

He described Mr. Raviraj as "very good friend whom he had known for a long time" and a courageous and active politician. He could speak in Sinhala, Tamil and English fluently and was able to present his views very clearly before the people.

A lawyer-turned-politician and former Mayor of Jaffna, Mr. Raviraj was elected twice to Parliament.

A member of the Tamil United Liberation Front in 1987, he raised voice against the extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances in northeast and Colombo.

He took part in a demonstration on Thursday against Wednesday's army shelling in Vaharai where scores of internally displaced civilians were killed.

Leader of the TNA Parliamentary Group R. Sampanthan in a statement said Mr. Raviraj was the second MP of the Alliance to be killed in a space of one year. The other was Joseph Pararajasingham who was gunned down in a church in Batticaloa on Christmas eve. "His killing, like very many others, was yet another addition to the long list of killings of Tamils in various walks of life. The persons who commit these crimes do so with impunity. They have the confidence that the arm of the law will never catch them."

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna message said though the party did not agree with the political views of Mr. Raviraj, it respected his democratic right to follow them. "It is the political heritage of murderous separatist Tiger terrorists to savagely murder their political enemies," the JVP said.

The U.S. in a statement regretted the loss of innocent life caused by the military shelling in the Vaharai region. It called for an immediate and independent probe into the incident.

Ranil Wickremasinghe, Leader of the Opposition and head of United National Party (UNP), said in a statement: "Within a year of parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham's assassination, Raviraj has been killed. The police have so far not apprehended the killers, and it is of paramount importance that an independent inquiry should be held on this incident and culprits apprehended."

Mr. Wickremesinghe said he had known Mr. Raviraj as one who worked for peaceful settlement of the national question.

"His death will be mourned not only by his supporters in Jaffna but we are sure by all right thinking people throughout the country."

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