Colombo: Sri Lankan President Mahinda
Rajapaksa has said that some Western countries were
discriminatory while raising concerns over resettlement of
Tamil refugees and likened their attitude to questioning faced
by Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan at a US airport.
Rajapaksa said that while some Western countries urged
Sri Lanka to re-settle internal refugees with whom more than
20,000 (LTTE) terrorist suspects were found, those countries
discriminated people on their ethnicity.
"The President said they did not spare even popular
and famous stars if they had names like Khan," the Daily
Mirror reported on Saturday.
Khan was questioned at Liberty international airport
in Newark, New Jersey after his arrival last month apparently
because of his surname 'Khan'.
Addressing a Buddhist felicitation ceremony at the
Panduwasnuwara Rajamaha Vihara in north-western Sri Lanka
yesterday, the President also said those who attempted to
dictate terms to Sri Lanka in particular should know that it
was the people of Sri Lanka who suffered under the 30 years of
terrorism.
"They must not forget that it was my people who
vanquished the most ruthless and powerful terrorist outfit and
won the war against the LTTE and it was my people who would
pay back the loans obtained to win the war against terrorism,"
President Rajapaksa said.
"Those who laid conditions and urged to resettle IDPs
in a haphazard manner without thinking of their safety or
livelihood must realise that we did not win the war on a paddy
land," Rajapaksa said.
"We did not drive away the terrorists from a mere
marshy land. The entire terrain was infected with landmines
and personal mines. They must see the amount of land mines we
have unearthed," he said.
The government does not want to see a group of its
people live in makeshift camps forever, Rajapaksa said, adding
these people did not come to the camps as flood victims.
"They became Internally Displace People as they fled
the LTTE for their life. There are thousands of people in
other countries who live in makeshift camps as flood victims
for the entirety of their life," the newspaper quoted
Rajapaksa as saying.
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, September 19, 2009, 17:21