Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to Australia rejected findings in a SBS investigative report that documented evidence of torture and rape of Tamil asylum seekers deported from Australia to Sri Lanka.
Speaking to the SBS news channel after the report aired on Australian TV, Thisara Samarasinghe, suggested that the evidence of rape and torture was self-inflicted and labelled the documentary as a "doctored, orchestrated, biased documentary which is absolutely baseless, that is trying to portray an absolutely wrong picture of Sri Lanka."
Samarasinghe further added that the documentary was "an attempt to support separatism in Sri Lanka."
| SBS Dateline documentary with interview of Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Australia |
The high commissioner went on to suggest that people who felt they suffered in Sri Lanka were free to leave.
"There are people who committed suicide to bring discredit to people, so these pictures, and also people who are arrested, tortured, abducted, raped, are free to leave the country and go to other parts of the world,” said Samarasinghe.
Tamil asylum seekers deported from Australia raped and tortured (30 September 2014)
Australia would have breached refugee convention if Tamils detained at sea deported says UN (23 September 2014)
Deported asylum seekers face abuse on return to Sri Lanka (06 August 2014)
Ongoing torture of Tamils in Sri Lanka must be investigated by UNHRC - Freedom From Torture (24 September 2014)
Sexual violence against Tamils ‘systematic’, ‘part of policy framework’: Interview with Yasmin Sooka (10 June 2014)
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