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Eyewitness to carnage: The British Woman caught in brutal civil war – The Guardian, 16 September 2009
The following is the full statement sent to the Guardian by the High Commission at 2130 hrs BST on 15 September as an interim response to the above article.
“The Sri Lanka High Commission in London categorically deny the allegation levelled against the Government of Sri Lanka and its armed forces by Ms. Damilvani Gnanakumar. The Government of Sri Lanka has all reasons to believe that she has gone to Sri Lanka and worked in the
conflict area according to the LTTE's agenda, while overstaying her visa.
The High Commission of Sri Lanka wishes to question the impartiality of Ms. Gnanakumar and to inform the Guardian that she is not a military expert to analyse the incidents that took place during the fighting between the Sri Lankan forces and the LTTE.
The Government of Sri Lanka has reiterated that its forces were engaged in a humanitarian mission and at no point the government hospitals or any other civilian infrastructure where the civilians were accommodated targeted by the government forces as it adopted a zero casualty
policy during the military operation. The government doctors who were working in the no fire zone recently admitted that they were forced by the LTTE to speak to media based on the facts and figures given by the LTTE and to use fabricated stories on civilian casualties.
The Government of Sri Lanka has refuted the unsubstantiated and unauthenticated claim of over 20000 civilian deaths during the last stages of the fighting. The UN has also rejected this allegation stating that there is no evidence to prove such deaths.
With regard to the conditions of the camps we wish to reiterate the fact that the Government of Sri Lanka along with UN agencies, INGOs and NGOs are continuously assisting the internally displaced Sri Lankans. While continuously providing food, medicine, water, electricity etc the
government also has facilitated the uninterupted continuation of education to the children living in the welfare villages.
The Government has already commenced the resettlement of internally displaced Sri Lankans back to their original habitats and so far over 26000 have been resettled. The government is committed to resettle a substantial amount of them before the beginning of the monsoon season and
at least 80% before the end of the year.
The UN and the international community including the members of the British parliament who visited the IDP villages have accepted that the conditions of the welfare villages have been improved.
We urge the international media to be mindful of the malicious efforts of the anti-Sri Lankan and pro-LTTE elements to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka by spreading misinformation”.
Sri Lanka High Commission
13, Hyde Park Gardens
London – W2 2LU
15 September 2009
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