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Tuesday, Jan 08, 2008
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Help extend benefits to Tamils: Rajapaksa

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday appealed to all political parties and people to join him in his effort to provide the “innocent Tamil people of the North and the East with the same freedoms” that are enjoyed by people in other areas.

In his first public comment, after the decision of his government to abrogate the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) with the LTTE, Mr. Rajapaksa told a gathering in his home district Hambantota in the south that the military was in the process of “eliminating terrorism” in the north, parts of which are under control of the Tigers.

Mr. Rajapaksa’s appeal came amid claims by the military that at least 25 LTTE cadres were killed in along the Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) in the north and the United National Party (UNP) criticism of the decision to withdraw from the CFA.

“Now it is the government of Sri Lanka that is liable for the abrogation of the CFA. And it is they who are being condemned by the international community for their racist and war-mongering policies. The country’s reputation as a democracy is gravely undermined,” said the UNP explaining the circumstances under which it had forged the CFA and how Sri Lanka benefited from the pact.

Mr. Rajapaksa said his Government was faced with the twin challenge of eradicating terrorism and poverty.

He maintained how the terrorists had full control of both the Eastern and Northern Provinces when he became President and claimed that the terrorism had been wiped out from the Eastern Province and the same was under way in the North .

On media freedom, the President asked those concerned to glance through Sunday newspapers to see in abundance the freedom enjoyed by the media.

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