Sri Lankan President Urges Nation to Join Hands to Usher in PeaceSri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has urged all Sri Lankans to join hands to accomplish the noble task of ushering in peace in order to make her nation a prosperous country, the official Daily News reported on Monday, January 1.In a brief New Year message delivered late on Sunday, Kumaratunga expressed her wish that her people will all have the requisite strength to usher in a nation of peace and prosperity, devoid of corruption, inefficiency, hatred, violence and the scourge of terrorism. She said that her people are treading on an arduous route circumventing all perils and inhibitions to create an opportunity for people to live in amity within a framework of peace, brotherhood and cohabitaion. Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake in his New Year message called for the protection of the integrity and sovereignty of the country to enable the future generation to live in peace in the new year as well as in the new millennium. Sri Lanka, an island country on the Indian Ocean with a population of over 18 million, has a mixed religious community including the dominant Sinhalese Buddhists and minorities of Muslim and Tamil. The country has now entered its 18th year of fighting against the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in the north and east where they want an independent Tamil State. Both the warring sides have expressed their wishes to start unconditional talks in a bid to end the long-running ethnic conflict, but the talks are not likely to take place in the near future since fighting is still going on in the war zones, and, with the successive victories achieved recently, the government insists that fighting will continue until the talks make headway towards the solution to the conflict. |
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