The Hon. (Dr.) Ramanathan Archchuna
Hon. Dr. Ramanathan Archchuna raised a point of order to clarify remarks attributed to him by Hon. Namal Rajapaksa regarding “war heroes.” He stated that Tamils had regarded LTTE cadres, including under Prabhakaran, as war heroes and argued that those who died for their cause should be respected, while emphasizing that the grief of parents on all sides of the war is the same.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Sir, I rise to a point of order. Please allow me 15 seconds. Thank you, Sir.
¶ 02 Hon. Namal Rajapaksa mentioned my name over what I said about war heroes. In history, we have respected King Elara. Likewise, our LTTE leader Prabhakaran—when he was alive—we identified his cadres as war heroes. Not once during the period of the LTTE did we ever mistreat any war hero.
¶ 03 If those men died for their country, we respect them. We are willing to call them “war heroes.” I must clarify this to the country. If people died in the war, the pain in the chests of their mothers and fathers is the same—this we understand as the Tamil people. Likewise, we ask that you understand those on our side as well. Thank you so much.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Thursday, 22 May 2025 ·No. 1750307293077610 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. (Dr.) Ramanathan Archchuna. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 22 May 2025. No. 1750307293077610. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/24578