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Colombo:
With LTTE wiped out, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has offered equal rights for Tamils through a political solution but said it won't be "imported".
A day after his armed forces eliminated Velupillai Prabhakaran, 64-year-old Rajapaksa sought to reach out to the minority in the north with a brief address in Tamil in the opening speech of Parliament session as the army released pictures of the once-elusive Tiger chief's body with bullet wounds on his forehead.
He said the government does not accept the military solution as final and that his aim was to provide equal rights to all communities.
Rajapaksa said it was necessary to give the Tamil people the freedoms that are the right of people in all other parts of the country.
"Similarly, it is necessary that the political solutions they need should be brought closer to them faster than any country or government in the world would bring.
"However, it cannot be an imported solution. We do not have the time to be experimenting with the solutions suggested by other countries. Therefore, it is necessary that we find a solution that is our very home, of our nation," he said, adding Sri Lanka expected cooperation for it from the international community and not obstruction.
A day after his armed forces eliminated Velupillai Prabhakaran, 64-year-old Rajapaksa sought to reach out to the minority in the north with a brief address in Tamil in the opening speech of Parliament session as the army released pictures of the once-elusive Tiger chief's body with bullet wounds on his forehead.
He said the government does not accept the military solution as final and that his aim was to provide equal rights to all communities.
Rajapaksa said it was necessary to give the Tamil people the freedoms that are the right of people in all other parts of the country.
"Similarly, it is necessary that the political solutions they need should be brought closer to them faster than any country or government in the world would bring.
"However, it cannot be an imported solution. We do not have the time to be experimenting with the solutions suggested by other countries. Therefore, it is necessary that we find a solution that is our very home, of our nation," he said, adding Sri Lanka expected cooperation for it from the international community and not obstruction.
