Azwer raises privilege matter:

'Certain sections of media misquoted my speech'

Parliamentarian A H M Azwer raising a privilege matter in Parliament yesterday said that certain sections of the media have misquoted the speech he made in Parliament.

He said he did not say anywhere in his speech that the wife and children of Prabhakaran 'are safe and sound'.

The full text of speech:

"Certain sections of the media have misquoted the speech I made in Parliament yesterday.

"In my speech I have not said anywhere that the wife and children of Prabhakaran are 'safe and sound'.

"All what I endeavoured was to draw a parallel between our President and some other leaders in the world, where I described the humaneness of our President when compared to the inhuman attitudes of certain other leaders in the world.

"What I intended saying was that the late Thamilchelvam's wife and children were looked after well after his death. I admit that I made a mistake and mentioned the name of Prabhakaran instead of Thamilchelvam. This so happened since I was in a hurry to finish my speech as was beckoned to by the Deputy Speaker and I perhaps failed to mention the latter's name.

"Although I apologize to you and to the House, Sir, for the mix-up of characters, I still would emphasize the fact that our President is very humane in dealing with his adversaries and that the human rights champions and the Channel 4 should even now tell the world about the brutal killing of 600 unarmed police officers in the East, the butchering of Muslims in the Kattankudy mosque, the Muslims in Eravur, Alingipotana, and Palliyagodella (in the Polonnaruwa district), ethnic cleansing carried out by the LTTE in Jaffna, in the Vanni and in several other places.

"Although I have the right to raise a privilege issue since I have a close affinity with the gentlemen of the press as a journalist, I would only plead with you, Sir, to ask the media to give the same prominence to this statement of mine.