(VIDEO) 'My country always comes first' - Prime Minister on War Heroes Day

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said that the country which was protected by the war heroes who sacrificed their lives will not be betrayed for any reason.

"My country always comes first," he told Parliament on Tuesday (18) on the day the island nations marks the 12th National War Heroes Commemoration.

"Today is a special day. Twelve years have passed since we wiped out 30 years of terrorism from this country," said Rajapaksa adding that 12 years ago Sri Lankan forces released more than 400,000 hostages who were used by the terrorists as human shields.

"We ended the era when our people in the North and East were displaced as refugees," he told the Parliament

Moreover, the Prime Minister said the war victory is a great victory for Parliament as public representatives were the first to be assassinated by the LTTE terrorists.

"A large number of public representatives from Duraiappa to Amirthalingam to Thambimuttu lost their lives. R. Premadasa who represented this House, Lakshman Kadirgamar, Gamini Dissanayake, Lalith Athulathmudali, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, DM Dasanayaka, C.V. Gunaratne were among those assassinated by terrorists," said the Prime Minister.

"No one who went to war in those days went there to commit genocide. Former Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, Former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda, and Former Air Force Commander Roshan Goonetileke never led the forces to commit genocide but to save the lives of the innocent people in the north who were used as human shields by terrorists," said the Prime Minister.

Today the war heroes have become health sector heroes and today they are fighting to save the country from a pandemic, he added.

"We have deployed soldiers of the three Armed Forces, the Police, and the Civil Defense Force who can face any situation. I'm proud of it on a day like today," the Prime Minister added.