The TULF leader further said, Sri Lanka had been a peaceful country for generations, in which the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers, Malays and people of other ethnic groups, lived in peace and harmony. During the late seventies and eighties there had been a few upheavals, due to the violation of human rights, injustice, discrimination, exploitation and intolerance. The victims were mainly Tamils and Muslims. Various Tamil groups cropped up as saviors of the Tamils and Muslims. Their fire- power could not stand against one group called the LTTE, which gradually either eradicated the other groups or silenced them with their fire-power and emerged as a single group committed to dictatorship. Championing the cause of the Tamils they even drove every Muslim out of the Northern Province . The Muslims, merely because they are Muslims, had to leave behind all their possessions and the land where they lived peacefully with the Tamils for several generations. They are now languishing in refugee camps for more than 17 years in the south, with the Sinhalese, in Puttalam and Anuradhapura Districts, without privacy and their basic needs met. As long as refugee camps exist in our country, whether the inmates are Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims or of any other group, we have no moral rights to boast of democratic principles. With one section of our people undergoing untold hardships, being deprived of their democratic fundamental and human rights, we can t boast of our country as one enjoying full democratic rights. Loss of democratic rights, fundamental rights and human rights amount to slavery. Should our youths, be they Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims or of any other group, continue to shed their blood unnecessarily and die in vain at the battle front? I am convinced that the time has come for the country to find a solution reasonable enough and acceptable to the minorities and the international community.
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