|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, 24 July 2004 |
 |
|
 |
News | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
by Ranil Wijayapala All Sri Lankans should make a collective effort as one nation to apologise to what had happened in the past and move forward after forgetting that bitter past, President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga said yesterday. Addressing a ceremony to hand over compensation to victims of ethnic violence between 1981 to 1984, President Kumaratunga said Sri Lanka could not survive from the bitter past as they were not ready to accept that they had done a mistake. The President at the ceremony at the Presidential Secretariat, symbolically handed over compensation to 30 persons out of the 937 victims who qualified to receive compensation as recommended by the Presidential Truth Commission. President Kumaratunga in her capacity as the Minister of Relief, Rehabilitation and Reconciliation made arrangements to pay Rs. 72.3 million as compensation to the 937 victims of ethnic violence in 1983 and adjoining years as recommended by the Truth Commission. The President said it was only a symbolic offer of apology the state wished to extend to the victims of ethnic violence, especially in the 1983 riots. "As a nation we cannot deny that we had done a mistake in 1983. We have to accept that," President Kumaratunga added. "It is the responsibility of the Government to apologise for the mistake that had happened in 1983. "Every citizen should accept the fact and should get together as one nation to make a public apology for the events in 1983," the President added. The state which perpetrated that crime against Tamils should make a public apology for their mistake and the other side who orchestrated suicide bombing and all sorts of violence should also apologise for what they had done, the President added. "They might justify their position but responding to violence by violence cannot be justified," the President added. She said the consequences of the 1983 incidents were horrendous and Sri Lanka as a nation should look back at what has happened in the past and find reasons to that led to the situation. The President said there had been radical changes in the socio economic fabric of Sri Lanka following the 1983 riots. "Violent became the tool of socio economic system of the country thus making Sri Lanka as one of the most violent countries in the world," the President added. President Kumaratunga said she believed she would receive the support of all Sri Lankans to take the country forward after forgetting the bitter past harmoniously within the diversity of the country. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, Ministers Lakshman Kadirgamar, Ferial Ashraff, Douglas Devananda, M.L.A.M. Athaullah, Vijitha Herath and Deputy Minister Dilan Perera were also present. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
