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"We are determined that in a democracy
like ours where political views can be expressed freely,
political objectives must be realised through negotiation
and dialogue and through compromise. There can be no
room for extremism, and even less for violence,"
said President Mahinda Rajapaksa, addressing the 96th
Sessions of the International Labour Conference in Geneva,
today (June 15).
"Terrorism has
no place in the contemporary world. As a government,
we are not prepared, at any cost, to bow down to terrorism,"
said President Rajapaksa, who asked: "Would
any of your governments submit to terrorism had they
been in our position?"
Referring to the multi-ethnic
character of the Sri Lanka Government President Rajapaksa
said: "My government has been able to form
a coalition of 13 democratic political parties to work
in harmony for the well being of the country. Referring
to the multi-ethnic character of |
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the Sri Lanka Government President Rajapaksa said: "My
government has been able to form a coalition of 13 democratic
political parties to work in harmony for the well being
of the country. Most of them opposed me at the Presidential
election. All Muslim parties and Tamil parties except
one are in my government. We are a multi-ethnic government.
Such a government cannot and will not discriminate
any minority groups.
"Today, there is
a misunderstanding and false propaganda that we are
involved in ethnic cleansing. This is absolutely false.
I must remind this august assembly that it is
the LTTE which resorted to heavy ethnic cleansing from
the early nineteen eighties. They evicted all the Muslims
and the Sinhalese from the North."
President Rajapaksa
recalled that in mid-2006: "The LTTE evicted 53,000
Muslims from the town of Mutur and later launched a
massive attack on Jaffna and Trincomalee harbour. It
is then that we had to clear the entire East and I am
glad to say that we are now successfully resettling
the people who fled their homes due to the escalation
of the conflict."
Referring to recent
concerns about clearing some lodging houses in Colombo,
when Tamil persons were evacuated, President Rajapaksa
said: "As our government declared, if any inconvenience
was caused to innocent persons, we regret it very much."
He explained that on average 20,000 persons occupy these
lodges and only 302 persons were the subject of this
evacuation. In fact many had left voluntarily.
He said one must not forget that over sixty per
cent living in Colombo are Tamils and Muslims; that
almost all suicide bombers have operated from these
lodging houses, and
therefore, it was necessary to keep an extra vigil over
them.
With regard to the condition
of workers today and the ILO, President Rajapaksa said:
"A worker whether in the agricultural, industrial,
commercial or any other sector, is the core of development"
Emphasizing on the role of the rural worker he said:
"Unless we raise the dignity of the rural worker,
the rural peasant, the rural technologist, the rural
artisan, we will never be able to uplift our rural areas
and of course the majority of the working class. I
make a fervent appeal, therefore, to this august assembly,
whose heart is with the worker, to consider these thoughts
and deliberate on policies that will make the worker,
a satisfied person and the environment in which he lives,
mostly rural areas, to be more conducive to a pleasant
and productive life."
Here
is the full text of President Rajapaksa's address to
the ILO
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