NDTV film footage called into question

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Sri Lankan High Commissioner in India Prasad Kariyawasam has written to the NDTV Station in India protesting against the telecast of a highly disparaging film footage on Sri Lanka’s Internally Displaced Persons with unfounded allegations against the Government.

For instance a well-known LTTE sympathizer Seemon has been allowed to comment on the issue though the LTTE is banned in India.

He alleges that there are 300,000 to 600,000 IDPs in welfare camps behind barbed wires when there were less than 30,000 IDPs still to be resettled and these persons were not behind barbed wires and are free to move about at their will, the High Commissioner had pointed out.

The footage released by the NDTV, though a respected TV station telecast interviews of some Tamil Nadu fishermen that the Sri Lanka Navy had killed 300 fishermen of Tamil Nadu after hostilities. Also certain economic refuge seekers who came to Australia have been given the opportunity to air their cooked up stories usually used to gain entry to that country as refugees/asylum seekers.

High Commissioner Kariyawasam has requested the NDTV to withdraw the controversial report immediately allow him to be interviewed immediately by the TV station to allow the viewers of India to have an accurate picture of the ground situation of Sri Lanka especially in view of the visit of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to India shortly.