Darusman report tendentious

Darusman report tendentious
http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20110512_02

We will expose all false allegations about Sri Lanka - President

The report of the Darusman Committee on the final phase of the operation to defeat terrorism in Sri Lanka is a tendentious document that makes grossly false allegations about Sri Lanka and its security forces. The government will defend the good name of the country and expose the false allegations that are abundant in this report. So said President Mahinda Rajapaksa, speaking to editors of the print and electronic media in Sri Lanka at Temple Trees yesterday (10).
He emphasized that although there were questions about the validity of the panel that prepared this report, Sri Lanka would not take it lightly because it is necessary to expose the abundance of false allegations made, and it is the responsibility of government to safeguard the good name and the image of the country.
Responding to questions President Rajapaksa said the report was admittedly a narrative of unsubstantiated statements and not a record of any verified or authenticated facts. He said there was an abundance of evidence available through very reliable sources within the UN and several international agencies that were associated with the government in carrying out humanitarian operation to eradicate terrorism. All of this will be made available to all concerned.
On the matter of civilian casualties mentioned in this report, President Rajapaksa said there were many reasons to doubt the authenticity of the sources that have provided these figures. The government had consciously followed a policy of zero casualties among civilians. For this purpose the security forces had been given special education and guidance on Human Rights and humanitarian law. Considering that nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians sought relief and protection with the Sri Lankan armed forces it was most surprising to believe that they came for such relief to an army that was attacking them. He added that there was considerable evidence, somehow missed by this panel, which recorded the mass killings of Tamil citizens who tried to flee from the LTTE by the same LTTE that claimed to be their liberators.
The President also said it is surprising how any reasonably accurate figure of civilian casualties or even the number of civilians present in the battle-torn area could be assessed with any exactitude when it had not been possible to carry out a proper census of the population in the north of Sri Lanka from 1981, due to the obstruction of the enumeration work in the census of 1991 and 2001 by the terror of the LTTE. In fact those who are aware of facts know of the several conflicting report about civilians present in the area in the last months of the operation against the LTTE.
He explained that the government was making a complete assessment of this highly biased report and would place these finding before the world to bring home the truth about the final phase in eradicating terrorism and the current efforts at reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
He added that this would not be hastily produced report with highly questionable information as in the Darusman committee report.
Courtesy: priu.gov.lk