A cultural show was held at the Troxy Theatre in East London last Sunday to raise money to build houses for soldiers in Sri Lanka.

Members of the tri-service cultural troupe headed by Lt. Col. J. R. Ampemohotti were specially flown to London to perform at the show.

More than 2,000 Sri Lankans, including members of the Maha Sanga attended the London show, which was organized by the ‘Api Wenuwen Api’ London branch. The chief guests were Sri Lankan High Commissioner in London Nihal Jayasinghe, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, head of Sri Lanka Cricket Arjuna Ranatunge and Chairperson of Sumathi Group, Milina Sumathipala.

Addressing the gathering, High Commissioner Nihal Jayasinghe said it was time for the Sri Lankan Government to officially recognize charity organizations such as ‘Api Wenuwen Api’ which are working hard to look after the well being of soldiers and their families. He thanked the expatriate community for attending the show in large numbers to express their support.

Minister Rambukwella said that for the past 30 years, successive Sri Lanka Governments faced acts of LTTE terrorism and all the attempts by Sri Lankan leaders to resolve this problem through civilized means were futile.

He said when President Mahinda Rajapakse was elected he too tried to solve this conflict amicably but the LTTE knows only the language of the bullet and death.

Therefore, as the head of the armed forces, President Rajapakse called Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse and the heads of the tri-Service and took a firm decision to eradicate terrorism from Sri Lanka once and for all, the Minister said.

"As a result, the ongoing military thrust started about two years ago and our soldiers have now liberated most of the areas controlled by the LTTE. Democracy has already been restored in the Eastern Province", he noted.

When the military operation was launched two years ago, the morale of troops was largely at a low ebb and even the general consensus among the public was that the war cannot be won. "However with programmes such as ‘Api Wenuwen Api’ we have been able to change the entire mood of the country and the peace loving people are confident that the war will be won sooner rather than later", Rambukwella said.

He said some of the soldiers who fight to safeguard the country from the terrorists do not own even an inch of land. ‘I am grateful to the organizers of ‘Api Wenuwen Api’ for providing houses to our soldiers".

"Api Wenuwen Api" is the brainchild of Dilith Jayaweera who also spoke on the occasion. He said this concept was created after talking to the Defence Secretary. "I am happy that this concept was accepted by the expatriate community and our soldiers are receiving a lot of assistance".

Chief organiser of the show, Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe expressed his gratitude to all those who helped him to make the event a roaring success.

He told The Sunday Island that his plan was to raise £100,000/= towards the ‘Api Wenuwen Api’ housing project and so far around £50,000/= has been collected. The funds will be audited by the Sri Lankan High Commission in London and the Defence Ministry. He said that the results of the lottery draw have been fed into their web site.

Sam Chandrasinghe of "Sam Chicken" donated £20,000/= to the fund.