Sri Lanka is a democratic country and people and political parties have their right to demonstrate and hold rallies in a peaceful manner. “The government would never prevent such democratic rights,” President Mahinda Rajapaksa told the media heads today.
At a meeting held at Temple Trees, President Rajapaksa said that he strongly believes in democracy and that people will continue to enjoy democratic rights in a peaceful manner.
Asked about the recent assault on an Opposition protest march at Borella recently, he said that was an isolated and rare incident and the Police are making investigations to apprehend the culprits. “When you count the number of such protest rallies and meetings held since I assumed office and attacks to those, such incidents are negligible,” he said. “The Opposition would always want to have confrontation with the Police in such demonstrations. I have given strict instructions to the Police to avoid such and not to go even closer to those events,” the President said.
He said that it is natural to act the Opposition to act in such a manner as they would always look for sensational news. “When we were in the Opposition too we always wanted Police to throw teargas to our demonstrations so that our demonstration would come to limelight and would be advantageous,” he said.