"We have honest, close, and friendly relations with our neighbouring countries in Asia. We have also been able to build genuine good relations with the international community. These honest friends have carried out the greatest responsibility towards our freedom and sovereignty in this era. We value very much the assistance we received from all those countries at this moment. Our people who enjoy the satisfaction of freedom together with them must always have in their hearts the friendship extended by these friends," he said.

The President paid a glowing tribute to the armed forces, at yesterday’s Victory Day parade, saying that they had astonished the world by their skill in war, discipline, efficiency and valour. He said he had great expectations for the future of the country since it is a single country unified under a single standard.

Speaking in Tamil, the President said all communities should live as children of one mother and as brothers and sisters. "The war against the LTTE was not a war against the Tamil people," he reiterated.

He said the heroic forces sacrificed their lives to save the Tamils from the clutches of the LTTE. "We cannot forget the great service rendered by them."

Rajapaksa told the security forces the war has been won and now it was time to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil people. "They must be protected and should be able to live without fear and mistrust. And, that is the responsibility of us all," he said concluding his speech in Tamil.

"The events of the past few days have shown us that the whole world is surprised by this enormous victory achieved by our Motherland and many countries congratulated us for having defeated terrorism.

Until now the world had not seen such a powerful terrorist organization. It had ships, aircraft, submarines, huge fire power, and most of all thousands of men and women suicide killers.

For this very reason the world and some in our own country believed that in order to defeat the most powerful terrorist organization in the world, the army of a world military power would be needed. Others thought it may be necessary to deploy forces of the United Nations.

It is frightening to see how, not for a short period, but for full thirty years, the terrorists had our country it their clutches. They had terrifying plans to subjugate the entire country.

By 2005, the terrorist leader remained unharmed having waged war against four Heads of State and assassinating one of them. They fought the powerful Indian Army and in the end assassinated a great Prime Minister of India and a Commander of our Navy, Admiral Clancy Fernando.

The LTTE was able to assassinate our valiant Generals from Lt. Gen. Denzil Kobbekaduwa, Maj. Gen. Wijaya Wimalaratne, and Maj. Gen. Lucky Wijeratne to Lt. Gen. Parami Kulatunga. It sank several Dvora vessels and had free rein at sea bringing in armaments at will and also downed several aircraft and killed more than 35 pilots. Defence Minister Ranjan Wijeratne, and the Minister of National Security Lalith Athulathmudali who led the way in the Vadamarachchi Operation were also assassinated.

The LTTE had the ability to carry out major attacks in High Security Zones, on the sacred Dalada Maligawa, or any other place. Our Economic Zone inclusive of Colombo was easy prey to the terrorists.

As a result, quite apart from attacking the terrorists, there was the fear of them taking revenge for several generations if one even spoke against them. Yet, there was no one in the world who could stop this. Amidst all this, during the period of the ceasefire agreement the terrorists were able to develop into a dictatorial government. We had to provide protection to these terrorists who had killed our policemen and security forces by the thousands. Yet, for fear of provoking the terrorists the government did not give our troops even a piece of gunny bag to help build a bunker.

The orders to our forces were to be patient for the sake of peace, even if the terrorists came in front of their bunkers, raised their clothes and carried out provocative acts of indecent exposure. When I was elected President in 2005, our troops could move about in the North carrying weapons, but without ammunition. We must not forget that it was such an unarmed group of troops that was killed in an attack by the terrorists in December 2005.

Our troops had to suffer all this in silence.

"If anyone were to ask me what the secret of the victory is, I would extend my hands and show our beloved people, who include these mothers, fathers, wives who gave their closest and dearest for this battle. Our entire nation owes an immense debt of gratitude to these mothers, fathers and wives. They sacrificed their children and loved ones for the nation, to save the lives of others.

"As much as the Government, the people too had a good awareness of who the enemy was. Some mothers offered the treasured golden necklace they had inherited through generations for the security forces. While doing so, some mothers of our country also prepared meals to be sent to the displaced people from the North. Where else can one find a people who have sent their children to the forces to battle an enemy, and at the same time, send humanitarian assistance to the people in the areas where their sons are fighting?

Our valiant troops went to battle carrying the gun in one hand, the Charter of Human Rights in the other, and their hearts filled with love for their children.

Meanwhile, the people, while making sacrifices to the armed forces on the one hand; showed kindness and compassion to those displaced by war, and all the while were on the battlefield in their hearts. They protected the country by forming civil defence committees and carrying out inspections of villages, towns and vehicles. It was not only the troops that we deployed against the terrorists; we deployed the people of this country too against terrorism.

"Savagery is not bravery. Being humane is to be brave. I extend the respect and gratitude of the entire nation for their brave leadership to the Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Chief of Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Donald Perera, Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka, Navy Commander Admiral Vasantha Karannagoda, Air Force Commander Air Chief Marshal Roshan Gunetilleke, the Inspector General of Police, Jayantha Wickremeratne, Director General of the Civil Defence Corps Sarath Weerasekera, the Brigade Commanders who bravely led the fighting till the end, all company commanders and the troops of all ranks for displaying such bravery in giving leadership and carrying out this battle.

Today, nearly 24,000 brave children of our land have fought for freedom and are resting forever in their motherland. Similarly, nearly 5,000 children of Sri Lanka are wholly disabled. The last breath of our heroic troops must be blowing in the wind where the national flag I hoisted today, flies proudly. Therefore, with every breath we take we must remember these heroic sons and daughters of our land.

It is necessary to begin a new era in foreign relations to safeguard my motherland. Having won the freedom of our motherland, we must next establish our freedom and sovereignty internationally.

We have honest, close, and friendly relations with our neighbouring countries in Asia. We have also been able to build genuine good relations with the Arab and African countries. Those honest friends have carried out the greatest responsibility towards our freedom and sovereignty in this era. We value very much the assistance we received from all those countries at this moment. Our people who enjoy the satisfaction of freedom together with them must always have in their hearts the friendship extended by these friends.

"One of the biggest challenges we faced was to remove the border villages from the map of Sri Lanka. Next was the need to remove the threatened villages from our map. Having overcome these challenges what is left is to remove the villages stricken with hardship from our map. We have already initiated action in this direction.

"In the past three years we too obtained loan facilities. But, such facilities were not obtained by selling the national assets. From all such loan assistance we obtained the national wealth has been enhanced. Through this wealth, power projects, harbours, airports and expressways are being built.

Firstly, it is necessary for us to provide all facilities that were denied to the people of the north for 30 years. There is no doubt this will be a massive development exercise, the President said.