3000 SINHALA SOLDIERS DIED!! 11500 INJURED!!! 1000s OF SINHALA WIDOWS IN 2008!!!

3,000 soldiers have died this year - Mangala Samaraweera
Wednesday, 31 December 2008 20:06

More than 3,000 soldiers have died and over 9,000 wounded in military operations this year alone under the government of Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, who had publicly declared in Kandy that LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran would be arrested by Election Day in northwestern and central provincial councils, said Mangala Samaraweera, 'Defence Watch' spokesman and former Foreign Affairs Minister.

In a statement, Mr. Samaraweera said that despite boastful remarks regarding the war by the executive president, the defence secretary and the army commander, who are true owners of the Rajapaksa regime, only a massive destruction is the unfortunate result of this war that sacrifices innocent rural youth for votes of Sinhala people in the south.

The statement said, "The government of the four Rajapaskas that has been unable to reasonably address any development needs of the people, is involved in an attempt to win the north western and central provinces by once again sacrificing thousands of lives on the pretext of war."

"Under this war-for-election policy of this government, defence spokesman minister Keheliya Rambukwella on December 29th announced in Kandy that February 07th will be the date for the election, which won't be normally announced by the elections commissioner until the closing of nominations on December 31st."

The statement said, "From PC polls for east to the elections for north central and sabaragamuwa provinces, the government had been saying that the LTTE would be destroyed and that Prabhakaran would be captured like a pup. Although the defence secretary boasted that Prabhakaran would not be allowed to make his Heroes Day speech, they had to postpone ending the war to the end of 2008."

"Many such boastful remarks have been made by the executive president, defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and army commander Sarath Fonseka, who are true owners of the Rajapaksa regime, for which minister Keheliya is only a spokesman. Only a massive destruction is the unfortunate result of this war that sacrifices innocent rural youth for votes of Sinhala people in the south. This is a fact well known to the innocent people of rural areas where the funerals of the dead young soldiers take place."

"More than 3,000 heroic soldiers had been sacrificed for the war on which the Rajapaksa regime depends as a way out of all forms of disputes it faces. More than 11,500 others have been hospitalized. Thousands of young women have become widowed. This is more tragic than the fate suffered by the Americans in Vietnam."

"In this manner, the government is once again using Kilinochchi and Prabhakaran for the northwestern and central provincial elections. But, we want to say that neither war nor elections could be won in that manner. The government is using the battle cry to cover up its election malpractices. On behalf of the innocent people, we ask that the heroic soldiers be not sacrificed for war that is being waged for political gains. We also stress that the Rajapaksa regime is responsible for every soldier who dies or injured in war offensives that are targeted at northwestern and central provincial elections."
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