Congressman criticized for falling prey to Sri Lankan propaganda

Republican Congressman Heath Shuler has come under criticism from Human rights advocates for taking a trip to Sri Lanka, paid for by the Sri Lankan government, during which he praised the treatment of Tamils held in internment camps.

On returning to the USA, Shuler defended his trip in an interview and repeated comments he made while in Sri Lanka about the treatment of hundreds of thousands of refugees who were held in camps.

“I congratulate the Sri Lankan government on their victory against terrorism in their country,” Shuler said in an expanded statement released by his office.

“I also commend the remarkable work and efforts of the government of Sri Lanka in putting together the camps in such a short period of time.”

However, the Congressman's statements fly in the face of reports from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Physicians for Human Rights, which have all criticized the government for intentionally shelling its civilian population and denying foreign media and non-governmental aid organizations access to the camps, where conditions are reportedly deplorable and inhuman.

Shuler, who is not on the House Foreign Relations Committee, said he visited Sri Lanka to check out concerns he had been hearing from church groups that genocide was going on in the camps. Earlier in the year, he joined several members of Congress in writing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to express concerns about the conditions in the country.

Shuler acknowledged the trip was paid for by the Sri Lankan government through an exchange program that involved the U.S. State Department. He said he was briefed in advance by the department and met with U.S. Embassy officials in Sri Lanka.

“The State Department highly encouraged us going,” said Shuler, the first member of Congress to go to the country in several years.

Shuler said he met with charitable groups working in the country as well as with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and other government officials. He also visited the camps.

Commenting on Shuler’s visit Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch said: “He just got used”.

Shuler’s visit and comments has also upset Tamils living in the U.S. Dozens of protesters, many of them ethnic Tamils from around the state, staged a protest in Asheville opposing Shuler's actions.

“They (the Sri Lankan government) have been duping the whole world for a long time,” said Dr. Thamotharampillai Sivaraj of Cary, who came to the United States in 1989.

Raleigh resident Shanthini Jeyarajah said the trip was no more than propaganda by the Sri Lankan government, who paid for the congressman's trip, and that Shuler should have used the visit to press the country's leaders to treat refugees humanely and let them return to their homes.

“One congressman comes back and tells everyone that they are taking care of refugees well and people believe it, and it's not true,” she said.

The protesters called for the release of some 300,000 Tamils from displacement camps following the end of a quarter-century of civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the defeated rebel army, the Tamil Tigers.

Protesters said comments the congressman made about the camps do not accurately reflect the situation in the war-ravaged country and hurt international efforts calling for accountability and transparency by the Sri Lankan government.