Asada M Erpini

Atlantic Black Star, on 29 January, carried a mouthwatering short write up about Sri Lanka. It talked about the scent of jasmine, the smell of spices and the beaches in Tangalle and Mirissa that entice the foreign tourist to Si Lanka.

As happens all the time, whenever a foreign correspondent writes something positive about Sri Lanka, there are disgruntled anti-Sri Lankans, obviously of Tamil origin and probably living in an affluent countries after having used the excuse of discrimination by the majority to gain citizenship, who keep on harping on the hackneyed alleged discrimination of Tamils and the ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”abuseƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ of power by the present rulers of Sri Lanka, and attempt to dissuade the foreign visitor from setting foot in the island.

Another classic example of this sinister move is there in the comments section in the above story. An individual named Bhavani Dash, writes, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-Before you go to SriLanka please do some research on ethical tourism. Sri Lankan government killed 146,000 innocent civilians in 2009 war intentionally. The Sri Lanka regime is made of a family which controlled 75% of the finance of the country. First they oppressed Tamils, and killed thousands of them, killed at least 35 journalists who reported government atrocities, then impeached the chief justice who opposed the power to transferred to the member of family of the president.

UN panel of Expert took witness statements from thousands of people and the report confirmed at least 40,000 people were killed. Sri Lankan government still refuses to bring the murderers to justice. Please do some research on Amnesty InternationalƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.

When accusations and fabrications get repeated incessantly, they tend to get treated by third parties as fact. A few of the glaring absurdities in BhavaniƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s comment appear below:

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-146,000 innocent civilians were killed in the 2009 war intentionally.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-First they (Sri Lanka government) oppressed Tamils, and killed thousands of them.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-UN panel of Expert took witness statements from thousands of people and the report confirmed at least 40,000 people were killed.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

There is absolutely no evidence that the Sri Lanka government killed 146,000 innocent civilians intentionally or otherwise.

There never was a UN Panel of Experts that looked into the number of deaths in the liberation war that culminated in May 2009. All that happened was the person who occupied the post of Secretary General of UN at that moment in time asking three individuals ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” each of whom had an axe to grind against Sri Lanka, thus bringing their objectivity into question ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” to advise him on matters pertaining to Sri Lanka. The troika was no way a UN panel ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” there was no involvement of the UN General Assembly or the Security Council in the sordid move.

The figure of 40,000 dead in the war was a number that the one-time UN employee Gordon Weiss picked from thin air on his way back to his native Australia after his UN connections ceased. When he was attached to the UN Office in Colombo, he had given a figure of 20,000 dead, whereas his employer, the UN, had a figure of approximately 7000. Yet the UN estimate was not released officially as it could not be confirmed.

Everyone seems to have forgotten that the Sri Lanka armed forces rescued 300,000 Tamil civilians who had been corralled for use as a human shield by their very own ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”saviourƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢. This was done at great cost to the men and women in uniform, and if innocent Tamil civilians getting killed was not an issue, many lives of the valiant soldiers would have been saved. The rescue operation was beamed live to the entire world, and the numbers rescued are there in the respective records for anyone to check. These are facts and not fabrications as those that are being bandied about by the likes of Bhavani.

There are many more BhavaniƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s all over the world, mostly operating from the rich countries in the West. Sri Lanka needs to take forceful measures to counteract the anti-Sri Lanka propaganda and put the record straight. If that is not done, the massive, impressive and enviable military victory that the current regime delivered will come to nothing in the days to come. The lies that are being spread around have now become almost fact.