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Rajapaksa honours navy men

— Photo: AP

MAKING WAVES: Warship Samudura enters the naval base in Trincomalee on Monday.

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday said that the country’s navy is capable of defeating any enemy force within Sri Lanka’s territorial waters or in international waters.

He was speaking at Trincomalee in the east at a function to felicitate members of the navy, who sank three gun ships of the LTTE, about 600 nautical miles south-east of Dondra Head at the southern tip of Sri Lanka on September 10 and 11.

In this attack, the navy said it had destroyed a major floating arms storehouse of the LTTE. The gun ships were reportedly carrying a large quantity of arms, ammunition and aircraft parts.

Mr. Rajapaksa flew down to Trincomalee to participate in the ceremonial reception at the Trincomalee naval base to pay national tribute to the navy personnel who took part in the attack.

Separately, the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) in a special report said that by refusing to find a settlement to the country’s long-running ethnic problem through meaningful power devolution, the government had set itself on a “violent and destructive path”.

“As the people of Sri Lanka suffer the consequences of the government’s choices, many of the President’s party men, supporters and ministers are using sham and obfuscation trying to buy time for this government’s misdeeds”, it said.

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