Sri Lankan President warns of foreign attempts to destabilize the country

Sept 07, Kandy: Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa today warned that foreign forces are plotting various ways to destabilize the country and urged the ethnic Tamil and Muslim communities not to be misled by false propaganda campaigns that attempt to create rifts among the communities.

Speaking at an election rally held at the Edward Sports Grounds in Matale to support the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) at the upcoming Central Provincial Council elections, the President said four years after the victory over the Tamil Tiger terrorism, external forces are attempting to create a situation similar to the "Arab Spring" in the Middle East to change the regime.

The President explained that uprisings in Libya and Egypt created by street protests and by electronic and social media resulted in overthrowing the regimes but those countries are still in chaos and plagued with problems.

Anti-national groups, on the order of foreign forces are making similar attempts in Sri Lanka by creating racial and religious tension between the ethnic communities, the President pointed out.

He asked the people to be cautious and not to be misled by the propaganda against the country, and act intelligently to save the freedom the country earned after defeating the terrorism.

"We cannot develop a country without the cooperation of all communities, all the religions," the President said.

He said our responsibility is to build a country for the child to be born tomorrow and not just for the present.

Ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva, W.D.J. Seneviratne, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Wimal Weerawansa, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, Vijith Vijithamuni de Soysa, Rohana Kumara Dissanayake, Nandimithra Ekanayake and several parliamentarians participated in today's rally.

The President also addressed a public rally yesterday at the Kolonnawatte Pradeshiya Sabha grounds at Kengalla in Kandy.

Addressing the massive crowd gathered, despite the adverse weather, the President said the government is making decisions for the long-term benefit of the people and the country with a clear awareness of the posterity and the future generation and not the shortsighted decisions the opposition United National Party take.

Speaking of the elections for the Northern Provincial Council the President said holding elections in the war-torn province for the first time is a victory for democracy and he will not let anyone to divide the country as long as he is in power.

"I will not let anyone achieve what Prabhakaran (the terrorist LTTE leader) could not achieve," he said. 

1:45 AM