'Lanka ready to face all hostile elements'

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

'As one nation living in one country, Sri Lankans are ready to face all pro LTTE foreign elements and defeat them. Sri Lankans faced many similar challenges during its history and defeated them, Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena said.

Addressing Health Ministry officials during the New Year celebrations held at the Ministry yesterday, Minister Sirisena expressed these views while commenting on the report on Sri Lanka by the Ban-Ki-Moon Advisory Panel.

Minister Sirisena pointed out that the Sri Lankan Government rejects all allegations contained in the report.

Sri Lanka has an unblemished and victorious history which runs in to centuries. Sri Lankans lived as one nation without any difference from the beginning.

According to Minister Sirisena these elements are trying to push Sri Lanka backwards when the country defeated terrorism and is now heading towards a rapid development with permanent peace. The country needs to face this conspiracy and defeat it as one nation. The country saved its territorial integrity many times in the past by facing and defeating similar conspiracies, he said.

Now the LTTE is in a different mask and posing a threat to Sri Lanka from foreign lands. Sri Lanka will reply to the conspiracy launched by those LTTE-friendly foreign elements with patience and intelligence, the Minister added.