A Sri Lankan cabinet minister declared it was against “the law of the land” to remember “dead terrorists” in a press conference with journalists on Thursday.
Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha Senaratne told reporters that,
“The LTTE terror campaign also challenged the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country. Therefore, our armed forces did not have any other option but to crush the terror campaign using its full might.”
“Therefore, no one can blame our armed forces,” he added. He went on to take aim at the Untied States and European Union, aadding, “Did the US and the EU killed only IS and other Middle East terrorists in Syria, Iraq, Libya or Afghanistan when they bombed those countries?”
“Commemorating dead terrorists is against the law of the land,” he concluded. “But there is no problem in commemorating dead civilians.”
We need your support
Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.
Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view
We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.
For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.
