President’s Speech in Tamil has made all the Sri Lankan Tamils happy and proud

Full text of the press statement released by the Canadian Tamils for Peace and Democracy (CatPad)

(September 28, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) The recent visit by the Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapakse to the United Nations and his speech in Tamil has made all the Sri Lankan Tamils happy and proud. There was a joy among the Tamil citizens of Sri Lanka at the way our President honored the Tamils, and every Sri Lankan Tamil is thankful to the President for the respect and fame he brought to the Tamil language and its people in the International Forum.

But before the President of Sri Lanka arrives back in our soil, there was a wave of shock created by his own higher authority in the Defense establishment Lt-Gen. Sarath Fonseka, saying “I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese, but there are minority communities and we treat them like our people.” These words by a higher authority of a President, who honors Tamil Language and is sacrificing our forces to bring democracy to the people of North and East, will not bring honor but disgrace. If these words were said, we urge the Government to clarify and hope it does not reflect the views of the Government nor its Leader, whom the moderate Tamil community highly respect and trust. The Moderate Tamil Community backs the present Government and its Leader Mahinda Rajapakse, and believes that he would eradicate Terrorism and bring not only democracy and peace to the North and East but also a just political solution to the minority community.

Lt. General Fonseka also has stated that “We are the majority community and have the right to protect the country” which is totally unacceptable and against the constitution of our country. Being a majority community is not a right to protect the country but every Sri Lankan citizen has the right to protect our Country. For his clarification, we have Douglas Devananda, a Tamil Cabinet Minister from the North, S. Chandrakanthan, the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province and Mr. Karuna Amman and hundreds of his carders who fought against LTTE, do not belong to the majority community. The moderate Tamils who support the Government and long for peace are being killed by the terrorist faction every day. They do not just belong to the majority community.

We do accept his words saying “The national leadership basically is determined to solve this problem. The task given to us is to eradicate terrorism.” It is better for the defense forces to take care of the security of the country and eradicate terrorism and leave the rest to the political leadership of the country. We have great respect and honor for our soldiers protecting our Country and for their sacrifices, particularly Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka who is bravely leading our soldiers to victory.

We the Canadian Democratic Tamil Cultural Association request the Government of Sri Lanka and President Mahinda Rajapakse to request our political and defense personals not to hurt the sentiments of Tamil community in future by issuing such harmful statements. - Sri Lanka Guardian