President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said that the nation’s outpouring of joy at the defeat of LTTE terrorism shouldn’t hurt anyone’s feelings in any manner. That would be the greatest tribute we could pay our motherland.

The President’s statement:

To a people battered and bruised by terrorism for more than three decades, its convincing defeat is a genuine cause for celebration, that we see take place with spontaneity throughout our land.

At a time when we seek to embrace all of our people as members of a single nation, the celebration of this victory, as deep as it is felt, should be expressed with magnanimity and friendship towards all.

As the National Flag is raised throughout the land in joyous celebration, I see it as the duly of all to ensure that all differences that hitherto divided our people are subsumed in the great and momentous joy that is shared by us all.