State minister under fire for ‘Kuwait-bombattack’ remarks

A claim made by former State Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage that Kuwait had knowingly sent Sri Lanka citizens who were infected with COVID-19 is being roundly condemned.

In an interview with a private TV channel, Mr Aluthgamage went so far as to liken the action to a bomb attack.

“We did not select these people. They (Kuwaiti authorities) selected them and sent them on one of their flights to us. We aren’t babies here. It’s clear that they sent our COVID positive citizens to us. We understand this as similar to hurling a bomb at us,” he claimed in the interview.

Mr Aluthgamage’s statement has come under severe criticism from former Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, former Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) MP Sunil Handunnetti, and several Kuwait returnees, among others.

Mr Handunnetti, who also heads the “Ethera Api” organisation which represents the interests of overseas based Sri Lankan workers, sent a strongly worded letter to Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena. Quoting Sri Lanka’s own Ambassador to Kuwait, the former JVP MP noted that 466 Sri Lankan expatriates in Kuwait were subjected to medical tests and only four were hospitalised, of which only one person had tested positive for COVID-19.

He pointed out that during the past two months, Sri Lankans stranded in West Asia had repeatedly appealed to the Government to take steps to bring them back to Sri Lanka.

“However, the Government continued to delay taking steps to bring these persons back and this aggravated the situation. Given this situation, we cannot accept the insults being hurled against these innocent Sri Lankans and the foreign governments that facilitated their return to us,” he emphasised in the letter.