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Those old rascals again...

Sri Lanka’s Minister of External Affairs, G. L. Peiris, told a seminar that the LTTE was to blame for ‘misinformation’ about the role of the army in the Northeast, which even the UN had bought into.

Peiris

The Sunday Leader quotes Peiris as saying:


“Such misinformation is reflected in the UNHRC report too and the deliberate use of the word ‘intrusive’ for presence of the Army in the north, is inaccurate, unjustified and wrong. This assertion contradicts the OCHA report that they (UN) themselves have prepared in which their own independent surveys, conducted on 197 northern civilians at random, said that they want the Army to be there, considering the extent of humanitarian roles being performed by them. It was the perception of the people that had been articulated to the OCHA.”


“I note with profound sadness that the UN High Commissioner failed to mention even one word about the UN’s own assessment when she was here. Is the Army fighting against a force or conducting an operation there? This transition in the north could have taken a great deal longer, had the Army not been there to kick off redevelopment. Tremendous efforts, invested by the armed forces for regeneration of their lives in the north or the east, have gone unnoticed. Why is the UN so selective and biased? Why are people crying out against Sri Lanka alone,” 

Peiris went on to explain that the cries against Sri Lanka were down to an “attitude that has been created by the LTTE now operating in Western capitals.”

He further said:


“They are now amassing funds with the view to reviving the movement for separatism. Earlier, they owned ships, petrol sheds, aircraft, banks and suchlike as investments, to buy weaponry to be smuggled to Sri Lanka when the armed forces were waging war against them. With that accumulated finances, they are now buying people, information campaigns, overseas rump who are prepared to destabilize Sri Lanka now on its recovery path,”

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