GUNARATNAM PRESS CONFERENCE GENERATED EXTREMELY BAD PUBLICIY FOR SRI LANKA
Onlanka News – By Walter Jayawardhana
Premakumar Gunaratnam a leader of the JVP splinter group, Frontline Socialist Party who was banished from Sri Lanka to his second home Sydney received the widest possible publicity in Australia when he held a press conference there
In the press conference he has accused the Colombo government of widespread human rights violations and declared he would have been dead if not for the intervention of the Australian High Commissioner in Colombo and pressure brought on the government by the media.
The following is a report published in the Age group in Australia generating extremely bad publicity for the country:
Australian claims Sri Lankan agents sexually tortured him
Leesha McKenny, Dylan Welch
‘I would have been killed” … Premakumar Gunaratnam with his wife and children in a family photo taken last year. Photo: Kate Geraghty
THE Australian man abducted in Sri Lanka over the weekend has contradicted the claims of the Colombo government, claiming it abducted him, and were it not for Canberra’s intervention he would have faced certain death.
Premakumar Gunaratnam, a 42-year-old Sri Lankan left wing politician who moved to Australia in 2006, held a press conference at his house in Sydney’s north this afternoon, after leaving Sri Lanka yesterday.
He said that he was handcuffed, blindfolded and physically and sexually tortured during his three day detention.
“I have no doubt that if I didn’t have the Australian government’s support I would have been killed just like my brother and hundreds of other political activists and journalists have been killed,” Mr Gunaratnam said at his Dural home at about 2.30pm.
His claims will put pressure on the Sri Lankan government, who at first said they were unaware of Mr Gunaratnam’s presence in their country, and once he was located stated categorically that they had played no role in his disappearance.
“The Sri Lankan authorities never arrested that person,” the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Canberra, Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe, told Fairfax media on Tuesday.
Disputing that contention, Mr Gunaratnam said: “I can confirm I was abducted by the Sri Lankan government forces, blindfolded and tortured. This includes, I am embarrassed to say, sexual torture.”
He called on the international community to acknowledge what he says are ongoing human rights violations in Sri Lanka being commited by the govenrment of Mahinda Rajapaksa.
“If everyone ignores the human rights violations in Sri Lanka then the Rajapaksa regime will continue the dictatorial regime abducting and killing people who speak out,” he said.
“The free-thinking world should take a stance against (these) gross human rights violations.”
Comment is being sought from the Sri Lankan government.
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Mr Gunaratnam’s ‘holier than thou’ approach in this matter manifests despicable behaviour. Mr G is an Australian Citizen. He is a dual citizen of SL but he travelled to SL on an Australian passport. He overstayed his visa and also, getting involved in SL politics was not part of his visa conditions as a tourist or a visitor bearing an Australian passport.
The SL Government behaved impeccably well in this matter. If they had preferred otherwise, Mr G could have been charged for overstaying his visa and also breaking visa conditions.
The SL Government should probe the source of funds for the Frontline Party. It was formed a couple of months ago and the grandiose inaugural convention they had would have cost multi-millions. Wonder where the millions came from? Sure it did not come from the suffering masses in SL.
Mr G has the knack for drama claiming ‘sexual harassment’ during his ‘abduction’. This will certainly catch the eye of the sex-starved populations in the West.
Strongly urge SL Governement to investigate the nefarious activities of this ‘con-man’ and seek his extradition from Australia to face charges in an SL Court of Law.
I beg to differ. Mr Gunaratnam is wrong to enter on a false visa but no civilised society abducts people for such issues and torture.
SL govt. who correctly boasted about eliminating the LTTE, are now terrorising its own people. The same govt. having eliminated the LTTE, shamefully unable to catch a single culprit despite 200,000 security force. Why? Why? To the disbelief of people, even when the cold blooded culprits caught by vigilant citizens many times, were released by direct interventions proving the acutal culprits who have replaced the terror of LTTE in SL!!!
KUMAR GUNARATHNEM,Free Thinking culprit.
We need boundrees of dicipling.
You need to have free every thing. free visa,free publicity free sex,free food & login,free from human valivs.Free socity.Free rilation ships.free social crims.
Austrelia take care of him soona or later he shall pee on you face!!!
Majority of Austarlians dont even know that India and sri lamka are two different countries. So it is very easy to hoodwink them by Gunaratnam or any otehr con man. The Aussies have over the years treated the natives of australia so badly over the years and now talking about human rights.
Why do we allow such people like Gunaratnam to have dual citizenships when all they want to do is damage the name of Sri Lanka.
All you you do gooders acn first try to be a Sri lamkan (that if your a loyal citizen) then think about the damage you are doing to the country by agreeing with lies and bullshit that our enemies are making up. Sexual abuse my foot. I don’t see any sexual appeal in that Gunaratnam fellow. Mr President please revoke his Sri Lnkan cictizenship and never let this idiot enter the country again.