UN General Assembly
2008

Lankans for centuries. Today, there are Tamil leaders holding responsible ministerial posts in my Government. A former Attorney-General of then Ceylon, Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, a beloved Tamil politician, had this to say at a public meeting in Colombo in September 1904: “I have been to many countries in the world. But nowhere have I seen such a friendly race as the Sinhalese, who also uphold high moral values.” Such was the harmony between the Tamils and the Sinhalese. But a malicious group has turned all of this upside down. All successive Governments of Sri Lanka have endeavoured to resolve the problem for over 25 years, including through Norwegian facilitation and international co-chairs overseeing a so-called peace process that was treated with contempt by the terrorists. On each occasion that talks were held seeking peace, the terrorists of the LTTE walked out on the flimsiest of pretexts and reverted to terrorism of the worst kind, indiscriminately targeting innocent civilians. Our Government will only be ready to talk to that illegal armed group when it is ready to commit itself to