President determined to eradicate terrorism, will not resign over terrorist attacks

President Maithripala Sirisena said he is determined to continue the operations to eradicate terrorism and not ready to resign over the Easter Sunday attacks to and let terrorists win.

Speaking at the ‘Rata Wenuwen Ekata Sitimu’ public meeting on Saturday at the Uhana School Grounds in Ampara, the President said he was not affected by terrorism and he would fulfil the responsibility of building a peaceful country after eradicating terrorism.

The President called on the public and private sector workers to attend work and children to attend schools and bring normalcy as that is the way to defeat the aims of terrorists.

Participating in the final progress review meeting of the Ampara district Rata Wenuwen Ekata Sitimu (Let’s Stand Together for the Country) program on Saturday at the Uhana Maha Vidyalaya Ground in Ampara, the President said that the law will be enforced against anyone who is responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks on 21 April.

President Sirisena said that the responsibility of all the citizens who love the country should be to fulfil their respective responsibilities towards creating a peaceful environment where all the citizens of the country could live freely, while understanding the actual situation and the issues, but not to raise their voices in order to get narrow political gains.

He pointed out that certain statements made by a few persons to achieve petty political gain have become a hindrance to the process of building national reconciliation while freeing the country from the challenge of terrorism.

The President emphasised that the incident on 21 April is not just a problem of Sri Lanka, but one of global terrorism as well. He added that the security forces are conducting operations towards the successful conclusion to eradicate terrorism.

Addressing the public officers in the East, the President said that the country’s national security activities are now being implemented with a new outline and plan, with a clear reform program implemented by the security forces. He further said that the program ensured the right of all citizens to live in a free society without fear or suspicion.

He emphasised that when the security forces successfully defeated terrorism, the public officials should take measures to end the fear in the people and to restore trust and understanding among the people.

A number of benefits were provided to the people of the district at the public meeting under the patronage of the President. President Sirisena symbolically made several provisions among other things for the development of religious places in the area, handing over of equipment and ambulances to the hospitals, providing of domestic water filters for families affected by kidney disease, handing over land deeds, provision of donations for children’s homes, self-employment and livelihood development loan facilities, and nets to inland fishermen, distribution of agricultural equipment sets to small-scale enterprises, distribution of coconut and cashew nuts saplings, donation of sports equipment to schools and donations of wheel chairs for disabled persons.

In accordance with the instructions and guidance of President Sirisena, the Presidential Secretariat commenced the Program of Rata Wenuwen Ekata Sitimu with the aim of monitoring the implementation of national development projects such as Grama Shakthi National Program, National Drug Prevention Program, Protect Children National Program, National Chronic Kidney Prevention Program, National Food Production Program and Environment Protection Program and special development projects and various programs implemented by the different ministries and to ensure that they are implemented efficiently and productively for the benefit of the public.

This program will also help to identify the public issues already identified by the government institutions and work to solve these issues with maximum efficiency through the State mechanism.

The priests of the province, including the Maha Sangha, former Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne, Minister Daya Gamage, Eastern Province Governor M.L.A.H. Hizbullah, North Central Province Governor Sarath Ekanayake, MP Sriyani Wijewickrema, former Minister P. Dayaratne and ministers, Secretary to the President Udaya R. Seneviratne and government officials were also present in this occasion.