{"id":89006,"date":"2019-05-18T15:04:17","date_gmt":"2019-05-18T22:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=89006"},"modified":"2019-05-18T15:04:17","modified_gmt":"2019-05-18T22:04:17","slug":"decade-of-peace-marred-by-resurgence-of-terrorism-gota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/18\/decade-of-peace-marred-by-resurgence-of-terrorism-gota\/","title":{"rendered":"Decade of peace marred by resurgence of terrorism: Gota"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Daily Mirror<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

A decade of peace, which was an occasion worthy of celebration, \nhas been marred by the resurgence of terrorism in Sri Lanka which has \nimpacted all of us once again, former defence secretary Gotabaya \nRajapaksa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a message on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the victory \nover terrorism, Mr. Rajapaksa said several events which were planned to \ncommemorate the anniversary had been postponed due to the terror \nattacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we had planned several events to commemorate the 10th \nanniversary of the ending of the war against terror, we have postponed \nsame in light of the despicable terror attacks on April 21, so that we \nmay devote our efforts to those affected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Rajapaksa said the resurgence of terrorism was a direct result of\n the lack of vision and short-sightedness of the leaders, who carried \nout an unwarranted witch-hunt against the war heroes and thereby, \ndisabled the intelligence structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I strongly condemn the most despicable and cowardly terrorist \nattacks carried out on April 21 and call upon you to act with \ndetermination to ensure such acts of terror will not be experienced in \nSri Lanka again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of victory over terror, he \nsaid he wished to extend his sincere gratitude to all the War Heroes and\n their families, for their immense sacrifice and contribution to \nbringing peace to our Motherland, so that we could together, stand \nstrong in unity and dignity as one nation under the shade of our \nnational flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am pleased to share my thoughts with all patriotic citizens of Sri\n Lanka today, which marks the 10th anniversary of successfully \neradicating terrorism, which had engulfed our nation and its people for \n30 years. As an officer of a combat regiment of the Sri Lanka Army and \nsubsequently as the Secretary of Defence, I fulfilled my duties with \ncommitment, based on the immense love and respect I have for my country \nand its people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While serving as the Secretary of Defence, I was privileged to give \nleadership, motivation and logistical support to the victorious armed \nforces of Sri Lanka, in annihilating the scourge of terrorism that had \nplagued our nation and to ensure terrorism will not burden our future \ngenerations and its shadows will never darken our lives again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 12,000 youth who were members of the LTTE were \nrehabilitated through a complex program conducted by the Sri Lanka Army \nand were successfully reintegrated to society as responsible and \nproductive citizens of Sri Lanka. More than 29,000 officers and soldiers\n from the tri-forces, police and Civil Defence Force, laid down their \nlives for their motherland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands more are missing in action and around 10,000 are \npermanently disabled and are confined to their beds or wheelchairs for \nthe rest of their lives. I remember their sacrifices with heartfelt \ngratitude and honour them for their sacrifices to give us a life free of\n terror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also pay tribute to their beloved parents, wives and children who \nare to date, grieving for their loss. Programs such as Api Wenuwen Api\u201d\n were launched to support the families of those who died or are \ndisabled, and wellness centres such as Abhimansala\u201d and Mihindu Seth \nMadura\u201d were established for the disabled, so that they could live their\n lives in dignity, as respected citizens of Sri Lanka,\u201d Mr. Rajapaksa \nsaid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Daily Mirror A decade of peace, which was an occasion worthy of celebration, has been marred by the resurgence of terrorism in Sri Lanka which has impacted all of us once again, former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa said. In a message on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the victory over terrorism, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}