The official Sri Lankan army website praised Lord Naseby, a British politician who has been previously labelled a 'Rajapaksa apologist', calling him a "true defender of Sri Lanka's war against terrorism" as he delivered remarks slamming human rights organisations in Colombo on Tuesday
British Conservative Party politician, Lord Michael Naseby released his newest book “Sri Lanka: Paradise Lost; Paradise Regained” defending the Sri Lankan state during the Mullivaikkal massacre in a private event with Sri Lankan state and military officials.
"(Lord Naseby) firmly believes that agencies like UNHCR, Amnesty International, Human Rights watch, and several other Western media agents have portrayed a grossly inaccurate picture of the island, its Sri Lankan Army and its leadership,” said the Sri Lankan military website.
The Sri Lankan military website goes on to claim “the above agencies and even British politicos like Prime Minister Tony Blair, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Prime Minister Cameron and Hilary Clinton of the USA have been misled with false information provided by the Tamil diaspora groups in those countries”.
Amongst those present in the audience were the war crimes accused Sri Lankan army chief Shavendra Silva and defence secretary Kamal Gunaratne. Sri Lanka's foreign minister G L Peiris also delivered a speech at the event in which he slammed the UK and United Nations, claiming that individuals had gained 'mega financial benefits' as the United Nations Human Rights Council passed resolutions on mass atrocities committed on the island.
In his book, Naseby defended his estimate of civilian casualties during the final phase of the armed conflict as being around 7,000. However, organisations such as the International Truth and Justice Project Sri Lanka (ITJP) examined different sources, including the United Nations, census figures and World Bank data, and found that the highest estimate of those killed during that final phase could be as large as 169,796.
File photo.
Naseby has a long-standing relationship with the Rajapaksa regime and has been consistently opposed to a credible mechanism to investigate human rights violations in Sri Lanka. He has repeatedly come under criticism for his unabashed support for the Sri Lankan state, after it emerged he reportedly visited Sri Lanka 14 times between 2002 and 2017. A one-day visit to the island in 2012, cost more than Rs. 1 billion and involved the Commander of the Sri Lankan Air Force chartering a helicopter ride for the British Lord.
