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| I have been sickened by the way that the media is being used for propaganda purposes by people who wish only to breed hatred. I write this to bring to the notice of your readers, the agendas of some individuals who act under cover of being ''patriotic''. |
by Chrissy Abeysekera
(May 14, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) As a then law student who attended the hearings of the Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice N Udalagama, I was outraged when I saw 'Why Moon selected Darusman" by Mr Gomon Dayasiri in Sri Lanka Guardian recently which has a number of implied or actual falsities. Mr Dayasiri has deliberately omitted the fact that he was one of the defence counsel for the army and, as I personally witnessed, bullied the poor fathers and mothers of children wo had been disappeared or who had been killed like Dr Manoharan from Trincomalee, to tears on the witness stand.
The insensitive and callous browbeating of these poor people was carried prominently by journalists covering the sittings, including the Daily Mirror and others so this is not a personal observation only. This browbeating was what promoted some civil society organisations to intervene in the proceedings. They did so, on my understanding, not ''against the security forces'' as Mr Dayasiri alleges so unfairly but in the interests of justice. I have no connection with any of these civil society organisations and do not approve of the elitist manner in which some of them function. However this is not to say that the good efforts of those who work genuinely for victims in Sri Lanka should not be appreciated. Aming them are many non governmental organisations who work in a principled and honest manner.
If the Udalagama Commission had functioned fairly and its report had been published, the international attention that we see now over the report of the United Nations may have been averted. The media should have drawn more attention to the non-publication of the report instead of what the Lakbima newspaper did, publish sections of the submissions of Mr Gomin Dayasiri as defence counsel for the army and allege that these were excerpts from the Commission report itself. Commissioners who were aware of the truth did not have the courage to come out and say the truth. This is the free media in this country which the public is supposed to support when they get attacked by the government. This is a farce which we have all come to recognise and the support that the media has in this country by educated people has lessened similar to the way that the name of non governmental organsations have been blackened by the bad image of some of them.
If the members of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) who had been requested by the President to work with the Udalagama Commission had not been abused by government officials, held up to ridicule by persons like Mr Dayasiri ( who once referred to the respected French judge and memebr of the IIGEP Jean Pierre Cot as ''the coot'' before the Commission which was my personal experience), we may have been able to convince them of the real problems that we are facing.
I have been sickened by the way that the media is being used for propaganda purposes by people who wish only to breed hatred. I write this to bring to the notice of your readers, the agendas of some individuals who act under cover of being ''patriotic''.
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