ALI SABRY :
COLOMBO : Peace is not the triumph of one race, religion, or region over another.
It is the shared blessing we all enjoy today,Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher, and others, thanks to the ultimate sacrifices of over 27,000 brave men and women of our armed forces, and the more than 30,000 others who live with lifelong injuries.
Expressing gratitude to them is not a political act is is a moral obligation.
We must never allow that solemn remembrance to be confused with promoting racism, supremacy, or exclusion. Equally, we must guard against separatist ideologies being whitewashed and revived under the guise of grievance. These are two different things, and both are dangerous.
The LTTE was not just another armed group. It was a ruthless terrorist organization that pioneered the use of suicide bombers, child soldiers, and human shields. They assassinated moderate Tamil leaders, including their own, those who called for political dialogue over war. They bombed religious places of worship, temples, mosques, and churches. They massacred civilians in villages, at sacred sites like the Sri Maha Bodhi, in buses, trains, markets, and even during New Year celebrations. They ethnically cleansed Muslims from the Northern Province, giving them 24 hours to flee.
They turned negotiation tables into traps and rejected every sincere effort for peace:
• The Thimpu talks
• The 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord
• President Premadasa’s outreach
• President Kumaratunga’s devolution proposals
• The Norway-brokered ceasefire and peace talks under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe
Time and again, they walked away, often with bloodshed, while the country hoped for peace.
So, to the younger generation, don’t be misled by one-sided narratives from either extreme. Read. Learn. Ask what options were left when every political and diplomatic door was slammed shut by violence.
The military defeat of the LTTE was not a celebration of war, it was a cry for peace. A last resort to end two and a half decades of bloodshed. And the result is clear, today, children in the North and South alike go to school without fear. Pilgrims worship in peace. And people rebuild lives where once there were minefields.
We owe it to our fallen heroes to build not just monuments, but a nation of dignity and unity.
A Sri Lanka for all.
Where no one is forgotten.
Where no one is left behind. ( Writer is SRI Lanka’s former minister of foreign affairs )
