Importance of Lanka's humanitarian operation not properly presented
- Dr. Amunugama
by Uditha KUMARASINGHE
Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation Dr. Sarath
Amunugama said Sri Lanka's humanitarian mission of rescuing over 150,000
Tamil civilians from the clutches of LTTE terror was the greatest
humanitarian operation in modern times.
However, this has not been presented properly to the global community
and we are trying to respond to the criticisms levelled by the diaspora
or the British Channel 4.
Dr. Amunugama said that he didn't think that as many as 150,000
people crossed the Berlin Wall. A maximum of 5,000 - 10,000 people would
have crossed it. In Sri Lanka, over 150,000 people crossed the lagoon at
Pudumathalan.
"We can't visualise any place in the world in recent times where
150,000 people have physically crossed to the side of freedom. But we
never highlighted it, the Minister told the Sunday Observer.
The Minister said, "If we look at the core issue, we have done quite
well. Our heroic forces who were under fire crossed the lagoon at
Pudumathalan and went through difficult terrain to take charge of the
earth bund that was built by the LTTE. Then they called upon over
150,000 civilians to cross over to the Government controlled area. It
was a heroic effort and one of the greatest humanitarian operations in
modern times."
Dr. Amunugama said when the book "Gota's War" was launched he had
said that our case had not been presented properly to the global
community. Perhaps, the External Affairs Ministry, Media Ministry and
media personnel have been on the wrong track.
"We are only talking about what happened at the Nandikadal lagoon.
Nobody talks about what happened at the lagoon at Pudumathalan.
"We have not expressed properly the humanitarian activities of our
heroic Security Forces to the global community.
"Similarly to people talking about the rehabilitation that had taken
place, these are matters that we need to highlight. Our media strategy
has been very weak and we have not focused on the important aspects of
our case," the Minister said.
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