RIYADH: A majority of the Sri Lankans in the Kingdom expressed happiness over the victory of the Sri Lankan government which has liberated the country from terror.
However, members of the Tamil community in the Kingdom also expressed worries over the Internally Displaced Persons. The island’s government announced yesterday that it has killed the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader Vellupillai Prabakharan, who waged a war against the government for a separate state for the past 30 years. The government has relocated more than 200,000 IDPs who had fled the LTTE-held areas.
The Sri Lanka Consulate in Jeddah will celebrate the victory today with a special party to be held in the evening at the consulate premises. Abdul Latiff Mohammed Lafeer, consul general described it as a nation’s victory and he hoped to celebrate with the members of the community in a fitting manner.
The country’s Petroleum Minister, Abdul Hameed Mohamed Fowzie, who will be arriving today with members of Haj delegation is likely to participate in this event. Lafeer said that his mission will open a book for registering congratulatory messages from the community members.
“The recorded messages will be sent to President Mahinda Rajapaksa who had freed the country from terror.” With feelings of victory Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama who confirmed the LTTE leader’s death, told Arab News that now the terrorism has become a matter of yesterday. Sri Lankan Ambassador Abdul Ageed Mohamed Marleen described the finale of the battle against LTTE as a victory of all communities.
Saifudeen Thassim, a bank employee who has retired from Samba Financial Services said: “The leadership of the Sri Lankan government has eradicated terror from the island and had paved the way for peace and happiness among all communities. Now all the communities can live in harmony without any ethnic problems as we did following the independence in 1948.”
A member of the Tamil community, who wished to remain anonymous, said that whereabouts of some of his relatives is not known for the last three months ever since the government army launched its operations. “At least the government should give us a list of the IDPs so that we will know whether our people are living or dead.”
