Lankans in Paris protest over UNESCO DG’s statement

A large number of Sri Lankans in France held a demonstration opposite the UNESCO headquarters in Paris last afternoon to protest against the statement made by UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura condemning the air strike on the LTTE radio station, Voice of Tigers (VoT).

Coordinator of the protest, Manel Gunawardane of the French Committee of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) handed over a letter addressed to Matsuura demanding immediate retraction of his statement.

The letter was accepted by the Deputy Security Chief of UNESCO.

Braving the bitter winter cold winds, many Sri Lankans in Paris - Sinhalese and Tamils -continued the two hour long protest until the employees left the UNESCO headquarters late afternoon.

The “UNESCO DG has no business in interfering in our legitimate right to fight terrorism, Gunawardane said.

One of the Tamil participants, Thamil Nesan, EPDP leader of France said that it was wrong for Matsuura to describe VoT as a civilian media service.

“It is nothing but a propaganda arm of a terrorist organisation banned by most important members of the United Nations including all member nations of the European Union. We have to be vigilant against such conspiracies against our motherland,” he said.

“UNESCO has no right to interfere in Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity,” a participant at the protest said. “Sri Lanka has a right to fight terrorists and it is for the military to select LTTE targets and attack them and no international body should challenge that right.

Only armed LTTE cadres are allowed inside VoT or any Tiger office in Kilinochchi. The Forces have every right to attack a radio propagating terrorism”.

“UNESCO is an organisation for cultural and educational activities and it has no mandate to interfere in politics,” a spokesman pointed out.

“Matsuura’s statement is an indirect support to terrorism,” he said.

Sri Lankans in France are shocked over UNESCO’s unwarranted condemnation of the Sri Lankan Air Force attack on VoT.

“While the UNESCO DG condemned the air strike, the international community ignored the attack because VoT is a clandestine terrorist propaganda machine and not a genuine media institution,” the spokesman said.

He pointed out that even VoT Director acknowledged in an interview with the LTTE website Tamilnet that the response from the international community was lacking. VoT Director Thamizhanpan said that VoT is drafting a letter thanking UNESCO for their statement.

The spokesman said that VoT Director’s statement shows that the UNESCO Director General has taken the side of a terrorist organisation while the rest of the world ignored the air strike, as publicly admitted by Thamizhanpan.

“That is why we are protesting in front of the UNESCO headquarters in Paris,” a protestor said.