Dec 31 (IL) What we certainly do not need at the moment is a religious conflict in Sri Lanka. We have had this festering ethnic strife for over 50 years and a resultant civil war that devastated the country for 20 years. Just at a time when Sri Lanka seems to be ready to emerge from such a catastrophe certain segments are hell-bent on creating a religious conflict in the country, said Minister G. L. Peiris, at a ceremony held at Kurunegala.
He appealed to all people, belonging to all religious denominations to strive hard to defeat these attempts to create religious disharmony.
Prof. Peiris said, what the country needed very badly today was political stability. The economic and social dividends that the people were reaping during the last two years were solely dependant on peace. Before that, huge amounts of money were spent on procuring armaments to conduct the ravaging war but with the dawn of peace all these resources were diverted into constructive fields such as infrastructure-development.
