The World Food Program in Sri Lanka has apologized to the Government of Sri Lanka over a grossly false comment on the country by one of its officers broadcast by the BBC, describing Sri Lanka as a Somalia.

The Country Director of the WFP in Sri Lanka, Mr. Adnan Khan yesterday (Dec 10) made the apology at a meeting with Secretary of Defence Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, over a story on the BBC Sinhala Service that quoted an officer of the WFP, one John Campbell who works for the WFP in non-liberated areas, about the IDPs in the North stating that "conditions for displaced people there are as basic as in Somalia".

The WFP’s Country Director has told the Secretary MoD that an inquiry would be launched into this matter and an official statement issued on it.

The official web site of the Ministry of Defence defence.lk states that “the BBC with its known complicity with the Goebbelsian propaganda of the LTTE terrorists, or the "Tamil Tiger rebels has further distorted facts by coloring the story with a brief introduction to Somalia stating: "Somalia has been without an effective central government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. Years of fighting in the African nation between rival warlords and an inability to deal with famine and disease have led to the deaths of up to one million people”, implying that the IDPs in Sri Lanka live under similar conditions.

It states the “truth that is deliberately concealed by the BBC Sinhala service is that the sufferings of the civilians are artificially created by the LTTE terrorists to win international sympathy for their cause. In reality, these IDPs are the human shield held by the terrorists for the safety of their psychopathic chief V. Prabhakaran. The 'rebel held area" in BBC's terms is not more than a hiding place for the terrorists. All public services including health, education, transport, banks and administration are maintained by the central government. Even the terrorist chief is fed on food sent by the government. It is the medicine sent by the government that keeps his diabetes torn body alive.”

Observers of international media coverage of the situation in Sri Lanka have noted that in recent months the BBC has taken on a deliberate role in misinforming the world about developments in the country, especially about the conditions of IDPs in North, which appears intended to cause disrepute and embarrassment to the Government of Sri Lanka and obstruct its efforts free the entire North too from the grip of LTTE terrorism.