Rajiva Wijesinha

“ The commitment of the government, that such moderate Tamils, groups and individuals, must never be abandoned again remains absolute, and it is the least that can be done for the brave lady of whom we are now bereft. ”

“ Soldiers or ministers, rebels or the over hundred civilians who fell prey to suicide bombs and other instruments of terror in the south in the last four months, they are all Sri Lankans and it did not seem to make sense to bewail them individually. ”

“ These are positive steps, but they will be subject all the way to spoilers, the spoilers who cannot take electoral defeat, even though they deprived the country of elections for a decade in the eighties and thus nurtured terrorism in North and South, and the spoilers who, springing from that bitter birth, believe that a fight to the death is the only option open to them. ”

“ Her vibrancy and sense of humour and camaraderie at that conference exemplified her thorough commitment to service through sympathetic involvement. She will be sorely missed, yet another of the brave Tamil moderates who are the principal targets of terrorist totalitarianism. We can only hope that the democratic pluralism for which she stood up so fatefully will go from strength to strength, nurtured by such unswerving commitment. ”