Saturday, January 7 2006 11:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The Sri Lankan government is showing great restraint and patience in spite of all the provocations by the Tamil Tiger rebels, visiting Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera has said.

"Fortunately, in the last ten or twelve years despite serious provocations the government and the people of Sri Lanka had behaved in a rather exemplary fashion," the minister told reporters here yesterday (Jan 06, 2006).

Samaraweera said the United States and the wider international community had appreciated the response of the government despite Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) actions.

Calling the Tigers a 'brutal terror machine' which was responsible for about 3,000 odd ceasefire violations since February 2002, he said it was behind the killings of the "best and the most brilliant minds of the Tamil Community," and expressed apprehension that that a point of time may come in which the public may be provoked into actions that the government may not be able to control.

"There may come a point where the public could be provoked into actions which the government may not be able to control," Samaraweera said, referring to the ceasefire violations and the suicide attack on the Naval patrol boat.

"So I don't expect any kind of public backlash. On the other hand the government is doing everything possible to prevent such incidents from happening," he said.

Samaraweera said the patience shown by the government should not be taken as a sign of weakness but rather a commitment to a negotiated settlement.