The aim of the government now is to seize all assets belonging to the LTTE and eradicate the LTTE from the entire world said Secretary Defence, Mr. Gotabhya Rajapaksa in an interview with ITN yesterday (7 Oct). The government has taken all required steps to achieve this aim and the people need to support the President in his efforts towards this, he stressed.

Responding to a question, Secretary Defence stated, "President Mahinda Rajapaksa had the vision of eliminating terrorism from the motherland once he was elected as President. It is not due to anybody else's influence that this victory was achieved". During a visit to India in December 2005, the President even requested military assistance from India to strengthen our security forces, he explained, stressing the importance of maintaining strong relations with countries such as India, Iran, Israel and other South Asian countries who supported the government.

Even though it has been five months after the victory, the government is yet to arrest high ranking LTTE leaders similar to Kumaran Padmanadan alias KP who directly or indirectly supported the LTTE. The government has also taken steps to recover massive armament stores of the LTTE in Vanni and conduct operations to crack down the international LTTE network, Secretary Defence further elaborated.

He commended the security forces on their valiant efforts to free the country from terrorism and requested the public to contribute more to the 'Api Wenuwen Api' fund to help needy service members. He also warned of more fabricated and misleading stories originated both locally and internationally to tarnish the image of the country and its military.

He stressed the need for Sri Lankans to stand together irrespective of party, ethnicity or religion and work towards poverty reduction and uplifting the lives of all Sri Lankans.