Bloggers Wrong Lanka Rights Minister
Colombo has said that it would soon lodge strong diplomatic protests with capitals around the world that allowed pro-LTTE demonstrations to take place in their territories.
Sri Lanka Minister for Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe alleges that supporters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had staged protests, using Tamil Tiger symbols, in Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, the United States and Switzerland.
“The LTTE is a banned organisation in some of these countries. We are surprised these countries allow sympathisers to use the LTTE flags so openly in their protests against us,” he was quoted as saying.
Samarasinghe suggested that Sri Lanka would soon use its offices and missions to lodge protests over the demonstrations, which he termed as “supporting terrorism”.
Blunting Samarasinghe’s claims bloggers in response to his comments have said that the flags used by demonstrators were the “national flag of the Eelam,” while adding that the LTTE flag was similar in design.
Many in the online community even lampooned Samarasinghe and wondered why the Rights minister was bothered about diplomatic matters at a time when the international aid agencies were crying hoarse over the grave humanitarian crisis in the island nation.
Caught in the midst of Sri Lanka’s 25 year war with itself, the situation is fast worsening for Tamil civilians on the island that for long have blamed the majority Sinhalese of cultural, social, political and economic persecution.
While the Government claims to be on the verge of a victory against Tiger rebels, aid agencies in the region say the plight of Tamil civilians caught in the war zone is a shame for a modern rights conscious world.
