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Colombo protests Amnesty campaign

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: The Sri Lanka Government has taken exception to the Amnesty International (AI) campaign titled "Play by the rules", coinciding with the Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean as well as in Europe and South Asia, to secure human rights commitments from Colombo, the LTTE and other parties.

"Cricket is a gentlemen's game. The Amnesty is not being gentlemanly by launching such a partisan [campaign]. It should realise that [the] Sri Lanka cricket team represents the whole of the island and not the Government. Besides, it is the only team in South Asia which has a chance of lifting the cup", Lucien Rajakarunanayake, Press Advisor to President Mahinda Rajapaksa told The Hindu.

As part of its campaign, Amnesty intends to get the celebrities and public to sign foam cricket balls — which symbolise the Cricket World Cup — with the words "Play by the rules" written on it. Amnesty says the aim of the campaign, which will be staged parallel to the world cup, is to get better human rights commitments from the Government, the LTTE and other parties.

The Sri Lanka Government believes that the real purpose of the campaign is to undermine the performance of the country's cricket team at the World Cup.

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