Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa today (May 18) reiterated that the government will never betray the country’s victory, as a mark of respect to the country’s war veterans who sacrificed their lives and limbs to gain peace.

Addressing the parliamentary session in remembrance of the end of the civil war, the prime minister rejected all allegations of genocide levelled at the country’s armed forces.

“Thousands sacrificed their lives to give us this victory while some lost their limbs. It wasn’t to commit genocide that they went to war,” MP Rajapaksa stressed.

“Then-Defence Secretary, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former Army Commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda and former Air Force Commander Roshan Goonatileke did not command their troops to commit genocide.”

They fought against cowards who used innocent people in the north as a human shield, the prime minister pointed out.

Commending the efforts of the military personnel to save the country from COVID-19 pandemic, PM Rajapaksa said the war heroes have become healthcare heroes today.

“We have also withdrawn from the co-sponsorship of the treasonous human rights resolution presented in Geneva against the war heroes,” the Premier said further stressing that the government will never betray this victory gained through the sacrifices made by country’s forces & people to protect the motherland.

“I recall fondly my address to this House on the day we freed ourselves from terrorism. I shall repeat what I said that day – that our country always comes first.”