Tamils want to live in one country: Rajapaksa

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa today said the Tamil minority now wants to live peacefully in one country and slammed the Tamil diaspora for the lack of support in his reconciliation and rebuilding efforts in the former conflict zones.

"Diaspora and the Tamil parties who foster separation still try to take the Tamil society towards destruction", he said while speaking at the Victory Day celebrations marking the fourth anniversary of the military victory over the LTTE.

Rajapaksa said that Tamils now want to live peacefully in a single country. His government had faced various machinations by way of human rights accusations.

"The hidden idea was to crush us, how to make us kneel before them," he said.
Rajapaksa, paying tribute to his troops in a colourful military parade, said he would not allow the separation of the land that troops had scarificed to preserve.

The Tamils must identify the forces who pose as their saviours, he said, adding that the Tamil diaspora did not come forward to help the Tamils when they fled LTTE's clutches of terrorism four years ago.

"After 30 years the northern fishermen were able to do fishing freely. Tamil youth have joined the civil defence force and the police," Rajapaksa said, adding no government in the history had offered an amnesty to a terror group like his government.

"They were those who deserved to go to gallows. They were members of the world's most ruthless terror group. We rehabilitated 11000 of them and released them," he said.