Government Reaction
On June 10, 2007 Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake told reporters that the government regretted the eviction of 376 Tamils from Colombo and that he accepted responsibility of the incident. He promised that this kind of incident would not recur.
Two days later Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa defended the move, saying
"Everyone knows the LTTE is infiltrating (Colombo). We can't arrest 300 people and detain them. What is the best option? You can tell them: "You don't have any legal business in Colombo and there is a security problem in Colombo. We don't want to detain you. You go back to your homes"
"We have to defend ourselves. You can't risk the country. It's not against a community. I'm talking about terrorists. Anything is fair. When America is attacked every country calls it war against terrorism, but why are the terrorists being treated in a different way in Sri Lanka?"
Read more about this topic: Expulsion Of Non-resident Tamils From Colombo
Famous quotes containing the words government and/or reaction:
“Whenever the society is dissolved, it is certain the government of that society cannot remain ... that being as impossible, as for the frame of a house to subsist when the materials of it are scattered and dissipated by a whirlwind, or jumbled into a confused heap by an earthquake.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)
“In a land which is fully settled, most men must accept their local environment or try to change it by political means; only the exceptionally gifted or adventurous can leave to seek his fortune elsewhere. In America, on the other hand, to move on and make a fresh start somewhere else is still the normal reaction to dissatisfaction and failure.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)