Karu replies to the paper which misquotes him

Here is the full text of the letter sent by Karu Jayasuriya to the news paper which missed quotes him.

by Karu Jayasuriya 


The Acting Editor
Sunday Island Newspaper
Colombo


(December 07, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) In the absence of the Editor in Chief of The Sunday Island, I have made several attempts to contact you on Sunday, December 4, 2010.

Since you were not responding to my telephone calls, I subsequently spoke with Mr. Shamindra Ferdinando of your Editorial Staff. I lodged my protest in the strongest possible terms with Mr. Ferdinando, over the page headline in The Sunday Island of December 4, 2010 (To normalize relations with West, Tamil Diaspora, Sri Lanka should probe war crimes allegations -KARU)

Which is a gross misinterpretation of my words and dangerously inaccurate reporting by your editorial staff


I would like to bring to your attention the fact that no where in the statement I issued on Saturday, December 3, 2010 did I make a single reference to 'normalizing relations with the Tamil Diaspora', nor in fact are those two words present in any other context in my statement which you have published in full. Similarly, ‘war crimes’ was not the lexicon used in my statement, although you have chosen to interpret and publicize my call for an internal inquiry and transparent investigation into the heinous allegations made against the state of Sri Lanka in order to clear our name and regain our credibility on the world stage as such. Let me reiterate that the phrasing and interpretation is solely that of your newspaper..

Hence I am inclined to believe that your headline has been published with the sole intention of causing mischief and subjecting me to public and political ridicule as an opposition MP purportedly acknowedging that ‘war crimes’ have been committed in Sri Lanka. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a politician who supported the government’s military efforts from the earliest stages of Eelam War IV, I have consistently supported our brave troops and even now, my appeal to the administration is that it seek out the truth and clear our armed forces of blame. This misintepretation and mischief by the Sunday Island comes as no surprise for it has become the norm in this country to denigrate and vilify all those who call for a restoration of the rule of law and accountability by the government, often using the label ‘traitor’. It is a fact after all that the army commander who led the Sri Lankan forces to victory over the LTTE in 2009 has been reduced to the level of a common inmate at the Welikada Prison.

Evading my telephone calls since the publication of the article has further confirmed my belief that the mischief has been caused for political reasons. This is even more clear when one reads your political columns which have periodically continued to malign me.

I would kindly ask you to correct this gross inaccuracy immediately giving it the same prominence given to the story and the headline.

However, I wish to remind you that I reserve the right to resort to any further action I deem necessary in this regard.