India Globe reporter’s claims refuted by Ambassador Jaliya

Sri Lankan Ambassador Jaliya Wickramasuriya has notified India Globe reporter Raghubir Goyal that statements he recently made during a U.S. Department of State news briefing are drastically incorrect.

In a letter to Goyal, Ambassador Wickramasuriya corrected accusations made by Goyal and suggested that they meet to discuss the current situation in Sri Lanka.

Refuting the charges made by this reporter against Sri Lanka the Ambassador has explained to him in detail about the atrocities carried out by the LTTE terrorists in the guise of fighting for the protection of Tamils, the role of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and about the humanitarian operation carried out by the Sri Lankan security forces to rescue over 300,000 Tamil civilians who were being held hostage as human shields by the LTTE.

The Ambassador points out that by ending the conflict against the LTTE, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has actually restored human rights to more than 20 million Sri Lankans of all ethnicities, and brought lasting peace to the country. He has also apprised the Indian reporter that Sri Lanka has granted amnesty to 11,600 former LTTE militants who surrendered at the conclusion of the conflict. All of these people have received vocational training and educational tutoring. More than 70 percent have been released to civil society and into new livelihoods and studies, while the rest are currently being released as their job training and tutoring concludes.  He has said that in addition to this, Sri Lanka has also rehabilitated over 1,000 child soldiers who were kidnapped and forced to take up arms by the LTTE. These children have been given counselling and re-united with their families. (www.news.lk)