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No
sacrifice is too great for unity of all people: Ms. Kadirgamar “Army commandos provided constant security to my late husband until he was brutally assassinated by the LTTE. He knew that you were dedicated to protecting the country. He always talked of you sensitively,” Ms. Kadirgamar said. She added that her husband’s determination was to see the insurgency ended some day, and a society created where equality of opportunity existed for all Sri Lankans. Ms. Kadirgamar said the credit for setting up a Physiotherapy Unit and a gymnasium should go to her husband. The late Mr. Kadirgamar was an honest public servant, who had only his pen and his voice to use against the LTTE terror. He knew little of weapons. His constant hope was to keep the motivation of the soldiers high, said Ms. Kadirgamar. She referred to the scholarships granted to the offspring of the disabled and to those who had lost their fathers. She said Rs. One million was allocated in 2001 by the Seva Vanitha to build the Physiotherapy Unit and the gymnasium while Rs. 4.8 Million was allocated in 2005. Ms. Kadirgamar concluded by quoting from a speech made by the late Minister Kadirgamar at a graduation ceremony of cadets of the Kotelawela Defence Academy, “Finally, I say to the graduates who are passing out today, Ladies and Gentlemen, when the day comes, and I believe it will come, for the Armed Forces to lay down their arms because they have done their duty and won their battles, the peace that is going to be ushered, basically by civilians, will be rendered possible only if the Armed Forces have seen to it that they also had respected and had regarded for, and wherever possible looked after, cared for and tended the civilians in those difficult tasks, but a task profoundly worthy of your best attention, bearing in mind the supreme responsibility you have, not only for seeing to it that the country remains whole, but that the country ultimately remains united. Let us never have to rue the day when we won the war, but lost the peace for which the war was fought. I ask the young graduates who will shortly leave this academy to remember, at all times that in Sri Lanka the enemy is not the Tamil people. They are the victims of war. The enemy is a ruthless, fanatical force, small in number, high in ambition, undemocratic and fascist in nature, dedicated to the dismemberment of the state. They are the enemy. Your task is to deal with them and to defend the territorial integrity of our country. I know that a large number of today’s graduates come from the small towns and villages of Sri Lanka. To their parents I say that by encouraging your sons and daughters to enter military service, you send a message that is clear. No sacrifice is too great to preserve the unity of all the people of Sri Lanka.” |
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