"This will be the end of LTTE terrorism" – President Rajapaksa

A confident President Mahinda Rajapaksa said that this is the end of the LTTE terrorists' battle for a separate homeland and added that the terrorists should surrender to the military.

President Rajapaksa made this announcement at an interview with the AL- Jazeera station today (08).He noted that the LTTE cadres are willing to surrender to the security forces and that many have done so. He went on to say that successive governments in Sri Lanka had tried to persuade the LTTE to negotiate a political solution and failed, and that under the circumstances, the Government could not offer anything else, especially to a terrorist group. When asked whether it will take some time to convince people that the peace process will bear fruit following what is acknowledged by many to be an inevitable military defeat of the LTTE, the President said that within a short span of time the Government was able to change the minds of the people of East Province as the Government is familiar with their aspirations and culture.President Rajapaksa said that he believes in a political solution to the national issue and was confident that this would be best addressed after defeating the terrorists militarily. He insisted that a political solution would be the answer to address the grievances of the Tamil people not the terrorists.He reiterated the Government's commitment to a political solution, but pointed out that the most important task at the moment is to defeat terrorism comprehensively.