Speaking at the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States, the Ambassador said "Sri Lankans as individuals have shown unbelievable resilience, just by struggling to pick up the pieces of shattered lives and getting on with the business of daily life," she said.

Intolerance and extremism remain a threat across the world and no country is immune to these dangers, the Ambassador said.

Commenting on Sri Lanka's decades long fight against terrorism, the Ambassador said "many innocent people lost their lives over the past three decades of conflict in this country, killed not by foreign attackers but by fellow citizens, sometimes from different communities, sometimes by their own communities."

Looking forward, the Ambassador said her deepest wish for Sri Lanka as a country is that it continue to embrace one of its traditional, essential core values, that of its multi-ethnic, multi-religious identity.

"That is its true strength and the country must be resilient enough to hold on to it," the Ambassador added.

Ms. Butenis held a memorial service at her residence with the participation of religious leaders from several faiths practiced in Sri Lanka, to honor the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, DC, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.

The Ambassador said a terrible day in American history, however, brought out the best in Americans.

"Al-Qaida's attack on our symbolic buildings was an attempt to destroy our spirit and our way of life. But those attacks failed because of the resilience of the survivors," Ms. Butenis pointed out.