Dawn of a great future for Mother Lanka
 

I declare with great pride and dignity that I have hoisted the national flag in a single country unified under a single standard. Before me are our Armed Forces who astonished the world by their skill in war, discipline, efficiency and valour.

The President spoke these words in Tamil:

“This is the Motherland of us all.

We should live in this country as the children of one mother, as brothers and sisters.

There can be no differences here. The war fought against the LTTE was not a war fought against the Tamil people.

Our heroic troops sacrificed their lives to save the innocent Tamil people from the clutches of the LTTE. We cannot forget the great service rendered by them.

The victory we gained defeating the LTTE, is a victory for our entire land.

It is great victory you obtained.

It is a victory for all who live in our country.”

My dear heroic troops, The war against the terrorists is now over.

It is now the time to win over the hearts of the Tamil people.

The Tamil speaking people should be protected.

They should be able to live without fear and mistrust.

That is today the responsibility of us all”.

The events of the past few days have shown us that the whole world is surprised by the enormous victory achieved by our Motherland. Many countries congratulated us for having defeated terrorism.

Terrorists are no more invincible. It is only you, the valiant troops and our Motherland that are invincible. I recently went down on my knees and worshipped the glorious Motherland that obtained its freedom through the sacrifice of the lives of thousands of our heroic troops.

This great and glorious victory was achieved because of the younger generation that stands before us today. Young men and women from the four corners of Sri Lanka joined the Security Forces to free their Motherland. Some mothers and fathers gave all of their children to the armed forces and the police. When the eldest child had already sacrificed one’s life for the country, they gave more children to the armed forces.

If anyone were to ask me what the secret of the victory is, I would extend my hands and show our beloved people, who include these mothers, fathers, wives who gave their closest and dearest for this battle. Our entire nation owes an immense debt of gratitude to these mothers, fathers and wives. They sacrificed their children and loved ones for the nation, to save the lives of others.

Our valiant troops went to battle carrying the gun in one hand, the Charter of Human Rights in the other, and their hearts filled with love for their children.

The sacrifices by the children in our Forces in order to obtain this freedom for the people are incomparable. Our children continued their advance while artillery shells were falling, land mines were exploding at their feet, anti-air craft ammunition was aimed at their hearts, and their comrades were dying around them. Poison gas could also not stop them. Even in the face of age-old military strategy they did not retreat.

ow many of our children sacrificed their lives on huge earth bunds and the banks of huge tanks. They faced torrential rain and suffered under massive floods and kept moving forward with sore feet.In the end the advantage of territory, climate and weather, and many other factors were on the side of the terrorists.

ur children only had their morale and unlimited commitment. When the terrorists were keeping the innocent Tamil people as hostages and using them as human shields, when the terrorists were using the most modern artillery and heavy weapons to attack them, our brave soldiers using only small arms saved the lives of several lakhs. This is true valour in battle.

With every breath we take we must remember these heroic sons and daughters of our land. There is a unique value in the sacrifices made by our heroic troops. Those great sacrifices have not been in vain. You have lost your feet in enabling a nation to rise on its feet. You have lost your hands, eyes, flesh and blood in providing a pleasant and prosperous land to this world. Our responsibility is to honour those great sacrifices by joining to build a great nation.

Therefore, we cannot allow the land that was won with such great sacrifice to be divided or even a shadow of separatism to fall on it. In the solutions that we offer there will not even be an iota of space for racism and separatism. We shall, as soon as possible, move towards our own solution of not dividing the land that is now made one and ensuring that there will be no threat to peace in our region.

There was a dream that we destroy the world’s most savage terrorist leader and all other terrorist leaders, do not let terrorism own one inch of our land, and make this a single unitary State. Today, that dream has come true. With regard to the development of our country too, it is the same that I have to say. We are now living in times when dreams are turning into reality.

I am the proudest Head of State in the world for being able to see with my own eyes a future generation such as you who love your country so much. I am the proud father of such generation. I told you earlier, that we will not hand over to you the problems that we face today.

Today, we have not left a terrorist problem to be faced by you. I wish to emphasize again that I am not the owner of this land but only its custodian. Therefore, this unitary country which is without fear and mistrust, I now entrust to you.