Lanka charges Arundhati Roy of false assertions

NEW DELHI: The Sri Lankan High Commission in India on Tuesday accused writer and activist Arundhati Roy of making false and damaging assertions on the situation in the island country.
Roy had described the latest developments in the country as constituting an "openly racist war’’ and held the government guilty of genocide.

A statement issued by First Secretary Sugeeshwara Gunaratna said that Roy’s comments made in an article in this newspaper on Monday are likely to encourage the LTTE into believing that its propaganda is successful and that it should therefore remain even more obdurate in holding onto the civilians.

"Today, around 54% of Sri Lanka’s Tamil community live in areas other than the North and East and in locations where the majority population is Sinhalese. This intermingling of the communities symbolises the pluralism inherent in Sri Lankan society,’’ said the statement.

"The LTTE by contrast has sought through the use of terror to carve out a mono ethnic state. They have consistently rejected the path of negotiation and the several attempts to evolve a political solution equitable to all communities on the island, including through the provisions for devolution,’’ it added.

The LTTE continues to hold on close to 50,000 civilians in the north-eastern part of the country and the statement highlighted foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee’s statement in Parliament in February that "LTTE would best serve the interest of the Tamils by immediately releasing all civilians and laying down arms’’.

"Given this situation, the government has been compelled to deal resolutely with the terrorism of LTTE. The government is confident that the eradication of terror will create further space for the political process aimed at healing the wounds caused by the conflict,’’ said Gunaratna in the statement, adding that the well being of civilians entrapped remains the foremost consideration of the Sri Lankan government and its armed forces.


>> Full Story