Under international spotlight over alleged rights violations during the last phase of war with the lTTE, Sri lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday sought more time to deal with the Tamil issue.
Defending his government's efforts in rehabilitating the Tamil-dominated northern region, Rajapaksa said, "We always support peace... And we will keep supporting peace." "In Sri lanka we also fought 30 years of war against terrorists. So the whole development process, the economy went down. We suffered but now we have peace for the last four years. In 2009 we managed to eradicate terrorism," he said.
"Though we have eradicated terrorism, we have to face the international community, which is pressurising us," the Sri lankan leader told his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres.