Civilian deaths:

Gordon Weiss’ comment a false utterance - Mahinda Samarasinghe

by Shanika SRIYANANDA

Minister of Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe refuting former UN spokesman in Colombo, Gordon Weiss’s comment about civilian deaths during the final stages of the war against LTTE terrorism, said that no one should take serious note on his disclosure as it was a false utterance.

“It is not worth commenting on his disclosure, which is completely misleading and false”, Minister Samarasinghe said.

He had accused the LTTE of regularly killing civilians to prevent them fleeing.

The former UN spokesman Weiss had told the Australian ABC News that nearly 40,000 people had been killed before the war ended on May 19.

Director General of the Media Centre for National Security Lakshman Hulugalle said that the Government strongly refutes Weiss’s allegations and added that they were totally wrong. “His comments are absolutely false and he is trying to cook up allegations against the Government”, he said.

Hulugalle said that Weiss was ‘dancing to the tune’ of some interested parties and there was a conspiracy behind his sudden comments about civilian deaths during the final stages of the war.

“Why did he take eight long months to make such a comment?”, he asked.

Weiss said that he had received the information from reliable sources but Hulugalle questioned why the local and international media and other people working there did not come up with such a number.

“The media was given the chance of viewing how the LTTE was harassing fleeing civilians through the UAV facilities,” he said.