Sri Lanka president vows to eliminate terror threat after Easter Sunday bombings
20 May, 2019
Sri Lanka's president marked the 10th anniversary of the end of a protracted war with Tamil rebels by vowing to crush the militants responsible for the Easter bombings that killed 258 people.
Speaking on Sunday (May 19), President Maithripala Sirisena said Sri Lankan security forces and intelligence units could use their experience in defeating separatist guerrillas a decade ago to meet the new challenge from extremists.
The government has blamed a local terrorist group for the Apr 21 attacks against three churches and three luxury hotels that also left 500 injured and shattered a fragile decade-long peace in the island of 21 million people.
"With experience from a war that lasted over three decades, we are now compelled to meet a completely different threat," Mr Sirisena told a commemoration ceremony.
"We have been able to arrest all those who were behind the Easter attacks. Some have been killed in confrontations. This gives me confidence that we can completely eliminate the threat from international terrorism."
Muslims account for 10 per cent of the population in the mainly Buddhist nation, which has been under a state of emergency since the attacks.
Army chief Mahesh Senanayake said the military was paying tribute to around 28,000 soldiers who died in the war that ended on May 18, 2009, with the killing of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Some 5,000 government troops and police are also listed as missing since the end of the insurgency.
Sri Lankan forces have been accused of killing about 40,000 civilians in the final months of the conflict, a charge successive governments have denied. Nearly 16,000 others are also reported missing, according to the newly established Office of Missing Persons.
The official remembrance ceremonies in Colombo took place a day after members of the 2.5 million strong Tamil community mourned their war dead in the northeastern coastal district of Mullaittivu, where the rebels mounted their unsuccessful last stand.
Hundreds of Tamils gathered at a public park on Saturday to light lamps and offer flowers before a makeshift memorial showing photographs of hundreds of men and women who went missing, in many cases after being captured or surrendering to troops.
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