A Sri Lankan independence without terror |04 February 2010

Unfortunately, this new-found freedom was to last only 35 years. For in 1983, due to the growing conflict between the children of the same land, our people were once again trapped, this time in the hands of a civil war unlike any other.

Since 1984 our Independence Day has been celebrated with high security measures and with a sense of fear, on the part of both the Sinhalese and the Tamil.
 
Many had perished during the years of endless fighting and threats, hoping to see a better tomorrow and the day that our country would be free from terror.

At last, for them and those who were born during the war, their dream of peace has now become a reality.
Today, February 4, 2010, after two and a half decades of a meaningless war, we Sri Lankans can celebrate the 62nd anniversary of independence from foreign domination, without fear and with a sense of hope that words cannot express.

Our thanks go out to those brave soldiers, living and dead, who struggled to secure for us a peaceful Sri Lanka. The world will little note, nor long remember, what I say here but it will never forget what they did for our country.

It is for us to dedicate ourselves to the unfinished work which they who fought for peace have nobly advanced. We should, therefore, dedicate ourselves to the great task remaining before us of achieving a united Sri Lanka, where all races can live in harmony and transform the jangling discord of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.  

Ruth Mohotti