The speech made by His Excellency the President at the ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the Chandrikawewa

30/04/2009

Today we are celebrating the heritage of Walawe. Our expectation is to bring prosperity to not only Embilipitiya, but also Giruvaye Hambantota with this heritage. The people of these areas have been hoping for this prosperity since the past. Friends, you know that we all are children of farmers.

In the past most people only did chena cultivation because of the lack of water. My father who was elected to the State Council in 1945 wanted to supply water to those who were doing chena cultivation.

My father was the Deputy Minister of Land Development in the 1956 government of Mr. Bandaranaike. His first priority was to supply water to the people in Giruvapattuwa. Then a dam was made across Hulanda Oya and started building the Chandrikawewa in 1957. The government succeeded in this task and gave the first water from it within two years.

We used to have a concept that when a tank is built it lights up a village. That is the concept of “gamai pansalai, vevai dagebai( the village and the temple, the tank and the dagaba). After Chandrikawewa was built it developed many villages and vast areas.

I would like to remind you this Chandrikawewa which we will reconstruct was what made Embilipitiya become known as a town and got a place in the map of Sri Lanka.

Today we have the ability to reconstruct this tank because we have changed the policies of previous governments. This project had been stopped in the period 2001-2004 when we were not in office. The policy then was to pay attention to industry and not agriculture. We lost funds from JAICA because of the decision made to reserve the lands only for industry.

But the funds were regained through a cabinet paper which changed those policies and again set apart the lands for agriculture. Now we are launching a programme to reconstruct every tank with the funds we could obtain.

We succeeded in rebuilding the destroyed paper factory in Embilipitiya. And this building we have gathered in could also have become a business place for the private sector, but instead been able to build this centre for the intelligentsia.

Today, we are able to have rice for three main meals while others in world are limiting meals to two a day. I believe this ability was reached by the political change you have done, and also by ‘Mahinda Chinthana’. Had ignored agriculture, sold our tanks and privatized state enterprises we would be having the worries that other’s experience in the world have today.

We have an ability to lead a proud life just as we celebrate the pride of Walawe, because we identified our heritage and changed our country.

Today new irrigation projects are being activated in Sooriyawewa. Both left and right banks of the Walawe River are being quickly developed. And the paper factory in Embilipitiya is also restored.

Friends, we had the option to take the easy path to exit without trouble of handling major tasks. But we did not choose the easy path. And we did not choose policies only based on safety. We decided to move ahead despite the threats to our lives. We did not fear bullets aimed at us. We did it for the sake of the security of our country. We haven’t taken decisions considering our lives. How many of our ministers were attacked by terrorists. How many threats were there to the Army Commander and Secretary Defense? We had to take decisions in the midst of all these.

When terrorists closed the Mavilaru anicut at that time I also felt the pain of the farmers, being a son of a farmer myself. When we proceeded to the Mavilaru several countries asked us not to do that. They said we were going to face the most ruthless terrorists of the world. They also said that fighting is impossible with terrorists. Some people accepted those opinions and they assigned separate areas for terrorists. Then the terrorists could easily spread in there areas.

In every step we proceeded starting from Mavilaru for the rights of farmers for water, All the world said that it was a risky action for the leaders of a state.

Whatever they said, we proceeded after starting from Mavilaru. How many challenges we faced in the past three years? In addition to that we had to face the same challenges that every country of the world was facing such as a food and economic crises.

The terrorists who were then spread over 15000 sq km are now limited to 5 sq km. But the challenge before us is not a small one.

We can’t use heavy weapons. And we can’t do air attacks, because we are worried about the innocent people there. They may be Tamils. But they are citizens this country. My heart would not allow any civilians to be killed by bullets. I have the responsibility to protect all the people in the east, as well as the north.

We banned the use of heavy weapons because we specially wanted to save civilians. But the international community points an accusing finger at us for use of heavy weapons. We told them that we don’t use heavy weapons. If they don’t believe that I can do nothing. I said that is the truth. I also told them protecting my people is also my responsibility.

A foreigner may not feel the pain more than me. All television channels of the world are now directed towards Sri Lanka. Some people watch us with satellite technology. Some media issues false information. The world is watching and listening to us with eagerness never seen before. Actually we should tell them to do so. Because they should see how humanely our troops take care of the people in north.
The world should not act as they didn’t see those things.

You would have seen how our troops rescue mothers, carrying their little children at Puthumathalan. How they carry the aged, yet even seeing this, some international forces point accusing fingers at us. Daya Master says that he was carried to safety like a child carrying one’s father. Some parents go on their knees to respect our troops for saving them from terror.

The world must see and know all this. That is why we call this a humanitarian operation. This is not how wars are fought in other countries. We have seen how Iraq was bombed. We have seen how Afghanistan is bombed. Those who come to preach to us must see how Afghanistan is bombed. It must be made clear that before accusing others, you must have the strength to know what you do yourself.

We have a clear need to save innocent civilians from the terrorists. You saw how the LTTE uses tanks to fire at those people. We ask any special representatives to study this. We ask them not to be cheated and study the truth.

We can not give room for terrorists. If we allow them it would destroy not only our country, but also all the world.

We experienced what happened to those who trusted terrorists. And we saw what happened to those who supplied arms to terrorists. In his time what didn’t Mr. Premadasa give to the terrorists? He gave them arms, bullet proof jackets and money. Yet he was assassinated by them on the road on May 01. They came to kill him in vehicles which were given to them by himself. They also assassinated Rajiv Gandhi who gave his own bullet proof jacket to them. Every leader who tried to have peace agreements with terrorists was killed. Everyone should keep in mind this. They did the same thing to those who had pity on them. They carried out a bomb attack on Madam Chandrika, who lost one of her eyes.

We should be aware of these things. We have at no time gone for a ceasefire. We will not do so now. There is no time for that now. In the five or six days remaining we have given the opportunity for the LTTE to lay down their arms and surrender to the Armed Forces and, even in the name of God, free the civilians held by them. If they have no regard for their own lives they should even consider the lives of others.

We know you are aware of this situation. That is why you are with the government. Some people think that we only focus on the war. Most people don’t know much of the things we do. Every ministry such as the ministries of irrigation and agriculture are being activated with the task of development. But people have no proper way to know about these works.

The foreign minister who came from France yesterday said that the world has no way to know of the programme for the people fleeing from terrorists. They said the truth is quite different from the gossip, because they know that false gossip is being spread. The media has the responsibility to tell the truth to the word. And our leaders too should be aware of that. I believe the world should know the reality at least now, for the sake of people.