“Join me to free innocent Tamils”
- President   

[Monday, January 07, 2008 - 10.05 GMT]     

President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing the opening ceremony of the new Agro-technical Park at Bata Ata, Hambantota today (7) appealed to all political parties and people to join him in his effort to provide the innocent Tamil people of the North and the East with the same freedoms that are today enjoyed by people in other areas.
  
“There are two challenges before us. One is the challenge of eradicating terrorism and the other is the challenge of eradicating poverty”, he said. He described how the terrorists had full control of both the Eastern and Northern Provinces at the time he became President and said that the terrorism has been completely wiped out from the Eastern Province by now and the process of eliminating them from the Northern Province is underway.
  
Neither has the Government abandoned economic development because of the war, the President added. He enumerated the various gigantic development works that were inaugurated during his time while preserving local ethical values. The Hambantota Harbour, Weerawila Airport, power plants at Norochcholai, Upper Kotmale and Kerawalapitiya and the Moragahakanda Reservoir project are some of them. The President also confirmed that the Uma Oya Project would be inaugurated in March when the Iranian president would pay an official visit to Sri Lanka.
  
He also said that the Government does not want to sweep under the carpet complaints of alleged human rights violations and that it has provided new legislation and necessary investigative institutions to deal with such complaints unlike in the past where serious human rights violations took place with large numbers of disappearances and tyre pyres.
  
As regards media freedom President asked those concerned to glance through Sunday newspapers to see in abundance the freedom enjoyed by the media.