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Thursday, February 12, 2009 - 5.35 GMT |
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“Mischievous media reports have distorted
the international perception of developments
in North” - Ambassador Ariyasingha |
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Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Belgium,
Luxembourg and the EU Ravinatha Aryasinha
has said, a series of mischievous reports
filed over the past two weeks based on LTTE
propaganda, had distorted the international
perception of the ground situation in
Northern Sri Lanka.
This had detracted from sufficient attention
being paid to the difficult task being
accomplished by the government and the
security forces, as well as the atrocities
committed against civilians by the LTTE. He
pointed out that by spreading blatant
falsehoods, which they subsequently denied
or corrected, some journalists, as well as
Spokespersons of UN Agencies and INGOs
operating in Sri Lanka, had caused
considerable damage, as those who read the
original sensational story which was
“newsworthy” in the West, didn’t have any
knowledge of the subsequent denials, as they
received no attention.
Intervening in a session of the South Asia
Delegation of the European Parliament
chaired by MEP Robert Evans on Wednesday,
Aryasinha gave a factual account of the
status of affected civilians within and
outside the un-cleared area, and the
government’s future plans for re-settling
the displaced persons and evolving a
political settlement. He also provided
documentary evidence on several cases of
distorted media reports to MEPs. He noted
that while he had no illusion that the
thinking of those who might have for the
past 25 years or so fed off Sri Lanka’s
troubles could be altered, he wished to
appeal to the good sense of those who might
be interested in reason, and to underline
the main strands of the dis-information
spread by the LTTE in recent days.
Referring to a report by the Associated
Press (AP) January 29, 2009 headlined “Sri
Lankan health official says more than 300
civilians killed, 1,000 wounded in
fighting”, which claimed that “Dr.
Thurairajah Varatharajah, the top health
official in the region, revealed the figures
in a desperate appeal to the government and
aid groups for medicine and blood
transfusions for those injured in the
fighting”, he said the same AP, the
following day, ran an advisory to editors to
“kill” the story, as “the source denies he
wrote the letter that said more than 300
civilians had been killed and 1,000 wounded
in fighting in northern Sri Lanka”.
Similarly, having on February 4 charged that
“Puthukkudiyiruppu Hospital was hit by
cluster munitions”, the UN’s Colombo based
spokesman on the same day, apologized to the
Government for the comment, saying “the UN
did not point a finger at the military” and
that they “accepted the Sri Lankan statement
that it did not have any facility to fire
cluster munitions”.
Referring to allegations by the ICRC to the
local media on February 7, picked up by the
international press, blaming the Government
“for the plight faced by the patients and
civilians in the uncleared areas of
Mullaitivu”, the Ambassador said, Dr. H. A.
P. Kahandaliyanage, Secretary, Ministry of
Health had pointed out to the ICRC if the
International Committee of Red Cross had
heeded to the request made by the Health
Ministry to move these civilians, patients
and medical staff towards the Security
Forces who are waiting to receive and take
them to Vavuniya instead of deciding “that
they should go to Puthumattalam, which is
away from the desired safe area”, “the
plight that these civilians, patients and
medical staff are currently in, might have
never occurred”.
He said the damage caused by these
ill-judged statements and distorted
information compounded a difficult
situation, adding that he had not seen the
same persons or agencies drawing attention
to the LTTE’s despicable tactics of using
civilians as human shields, firing artillery
batteries and heavy mortar from within the
‘safety zones’, or using its suicide cadres,
firing on those Tamil civilians trying to
flee the LTTE dominated areas. He said it
was obvious that these acts are reprisals
against Tamil civilians for defying the LTTE
orders, as well as possibly a desperate
attempt to trigger an ethnic backlash. He
regretted that upto now the EU had been
silent about these recent incidents.
Aryasinha appealed to members of the
European Parliament, to support efforts to
bring an end to this conflict, prevent the
LTTE seeking a safe haven in Europe through
its numerous front organizations and to
support the restoration of normalcy in the
areas regained.
In order to do so, he said, it is imperative
that members look at the emerging situation
in Sri Lanka within ‘a post-LTTE paradigm’
that supports democratic forces of the Tamil
community – both in Sri Lanka and the
diaspora, who are keen on re-building the
country. Doing otherwise would not only be a
setback to the rare success a country has
achieved in militarily defeating a terrorist
organization - the LTTE, but also runs the
risk of allowing the cancer of terrorism to
spread within European society. He noted
that already Tamil children and youth in
Europe are being indoctrinated and terrorism
and martyrdom glorified, while members of
the LTTE through their front organizations
could use their expertise in money
laundering, human smuggling and gun running
possibly to support other terrorist groups
as well.
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