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UNESCO’s assurance to Colombo

COLOMBO: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement has said Director-General of UNESCO Koichiro Matsuura has assured Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in France and Delegate to the UNESCO that he will “ re-examine the entire issue” on the UNESCO press release issued earlier in the week regarding the attack on the Voice of Tigers (VoT) Station.

The Ministry said Ambassador Chithranganee Wagiswara met him on Thursday to lodge protest against the statement in which the official had “condemned” the air strike describing it as a “civilian” radio station.

“On the instructions of the Foreign Minister, Ambassador Wagiswara re-asserted the Sri Lanka’s Government position that the Director-General’s statement must be ‘retracted’ as the VoT is a clandestine radio station directly operated by the LTTE, a well- known terrorist organisation and is neither legal nor legitimate. It was also noted that VoT cannot be considered as a ‘civilian’ radio station and that those employees at the VoT facility cannot be considered as ‘civilian’ media personnel,” it said.

The military on Friday claimed that 19 LTTE cadres were killed and 18 injured in clashes along the Forward Defence Lines in the north.

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