The Sri Lankan Students Association of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, USA, organised an awareness event on Sri Lanka’s conflict and ‘post-conflict developments’, reported Colombo page.
The president of the society, Kasun Frenando, said that the event was organised to combat “a malicious propaganda campaign carried out by the Amnesty International against Sri Lanka.”
The Sri Lankan society event screened the film “Freedom Speaks – Thee unspoken ground realities of Sri Lanka’s Conflict”
The organisation also released a press statement, that disapproved of Amnesty International’s stance, and that urged other Sri Lankan student groups in the U.S and elsewhere to organise events that attempted to improve the image of Sri Lanka.
Referring to Amnesty’s portrayal of footage from a refugee camp in Sri Lanka, the statement read,
“We were shocked and appalled by what we saw. Camps for refugees were made to appear places only for animals to live in. The impression given is totally biased and prejudicial to the reputation of our country.”
Incidentally, the Sri Lankan student’s rebuttal of Amnesty’s stance on the Sri lankan government’s unacceptable demeanour during the final stages of the war, coincided with the release date of the report on the UN actions in Sri Lanka, which outlined several instances of the Sri Lankan government’s disregard for the Tamil civilians.
