Rajiva Wijesinha

“ I was reminded of this when reading through the recent State Department report on incidents during the recent conflict in Sri Lanka. What some have seen as a threat seems rather to provide an opportunity to make clear the sterling professionalism of the Armed Forces in their struggle to deal with terrorism. ”

“ Significantly enough, the greatest number of allegations of this sort, apart from those on TamilNet, were put forward by Human Rights Watch, which had begun the practice of supporting in 2008 the LTTE effort to suggest that civilians were staying with them of their own free will. It was Human Rights Watch that began the practice of talking of internment camps with regard to the centres the Government had set up for the displaced who sought safety in Government controlled areas. ”

“ I have in fact responded already with regard to some allegations, through analyses that are still available on the Peace Secretariat website. But these were written in haste, when we were also under siege in Geneva, in a diversionary assault that began in February with some HRW missiles, as indeed I recorded at the time. More detailed analysis then would be helpful, since it would also help to educate others fighting against terror about the combination of forces and strategies terrorists have at their disposal to do down democratic accountable governments. ”