Ministry to seek clarification from US Embassy on Twitter post

External Affairs Ministry Secretary Karunatilleke Amunugama said yesterday that the ministry would seek clarification from the United States Embassy in Colombo over a photo caption posted on social media regarding the visit of Stephen Rapp, the US Ambassador-atLarge for Global Criminal Justice.

“We will seek clarification into a variety of the contents that accompanied the photograph that was posted on the official twitter account of the US Embassy in Colombo,” he said.

Earlier a photo was posted on social media to the effect that US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Patricia Butanis and visiting US Ambassador Rapp were on a visit to the North of Sri Lanka and that they had visited St. Anthony’s Ground.

Rejecting the United States’ claims that the Sri Lanka Army’s shelling had killed hundreds of families at St Anthony's Ground, Iranapallai in the North, the army said today that this could be part of a much larger campaign that the US intends to launch in the near future.

The Embassy of the United States of America, in its official twitter account, said that “St. Anthony's Ground-was the site of the Jan 2009 killing of hundreds of families by army shelling.”

Army Spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said in a statement:

“The allegation therein that the Sri Lanka Army shelling had killed hundreds of families at St Anthony's Ground, Iranapallai is completely baseless. According to people who live in that area, the LTTE had used this ground as a place to handover dead bodies of their cadre who succumbed to injuries received during fighting. If this place was not safe the LTTE would never have used it for that purpose.

They also confirm that there never was an incident of shelling on this ground when civilians were present. “It is surprising to see a baseless allegation of this nature being released by the US Embassy without any credible verification. Although the reason for this release is best known to them, this could be part of a much larger campaign that they intend launching in the near future.”