Why this coyness about naming LTTE, asks Prof. Wijesinha

Sri Lanka strongly condemns attempts made by interested parties to damage its good relations with its partners by resorting to deliberate and culpably careless misquoting, said Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha Secretary General Peace Secretariat and Secretary Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights during an interactive debate on the Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva recently.

Prof. Wijesinha responding to remarks on Sri Lanka made by certain NGOs said the Human Rights Watch had referred to a BBC report which had dramatised an interview with an ICRC official whereas the official concerned had said he had been misquoted. This interview put up in the ICRC website showed how misleading the BBC version has been.

Prof. Wijesinha said the Human Rights Watch had also misquoted Gordon Weiss, a UN spokesman as stated by the head of the UNDP in Sri Lanka. The ICRC and the UN do good work in Sri Lanka under difficult circums- tances and agencies like the Human Rights Watch must not waste time of all parties pursuing clarifications.

Prof. Wijesinha said Sri Lanka had problems which needed solutions. It looked forward to the co-operation of serious countries and serious people to help improve matters.

But Sri Lanka also wanted serious action to ensure that civilians held hostage by the LTTE are set free. Everyone wanted that to happen except the LTTE which did not want that. So why is this coyness about naming the LTTE, he asked.

Certain NGOs like the Human Rights Watch did not mention them trying to pretend that democratically elected Governments are and totalitarian terrorists are as bad as each others.

Prof. Wijesinha said the Human Rights council should not be pompous about people who cannot even bother to cheek their references and think that terrorism should earn rewards for its intransigence.

The Council should cater to its intended purpose of improving human rights of all people without providing platforms for those with more money than sense and swell coffers of Geneva hoteliers, Prof. Wijesinha said.