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Letters: Sri Lankan Ambassador clarifies
I wish to refer to the article which appeared in The Jakarta Post of June 6 titled "IOM takes over case of Afghan and Pakistani immigrants"
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I
wish to refer to the article which appeared in The Jakarta Post of June 6 titled "IOM takes over case of Afghan and Pakistani immigrants". The article quoted embassy official Kapila Ubeysekera saying that "Kapila said there was no guarantee of their safety when they returned home, despite the country's victory over the Tamil rebel forces."
The embassy official categorically denies the above statement was made by him. The official said what he had told the detainees was that the reason why he was sent to speak to all Sri Lankan migrants by the ambassador in Jakarta was, in fact, to convince every one of them, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the present situation in Sri Lanka is indeed very much conducive to their return.
As you may be aware, the President of Sri Lanka in his victory speech said that after the victory over terrorism there will be no references to minorities in the future.
Since peace and stability in the country has already been restored and steps are now being taken to rehabilitate the LTTE cadres who have surrendered to the government of Sri Lanai is the intention of this Embassy to recommend to the government of Sri Lanka to request Indonesian authorities to arrange the safe return of the detainees to Sri Lanka.
You may recall the fact that, when you interviewed me in my office, I dealt in detail of the outline plan of the government on post-conflict reconciliation, reconstruction and resettlement. In fact, I am happy to announce that a very high official of Sri Lanka, along with his delegation, is due in Indonesia particularly to study the Aceh province development process and many other aspects concerning post-conflict development.
I would like to state that the above is the correct position and will certainly have undesirable consequences if not corrected. Therefore, taking the above facts into consideration, please use your good office to publish this statement from the Embassy of Sri Lanka giving the same recognition and importance in an appropriate column at your earliest convenience.
