The government yesterday claimed that the inaccuracy of the Darusman Report was proven by the census that was carried out by the Department of Census and Statistics. Meanwhile the opposition claimed the report by the Census Department could not be taken as fact until there was proper verification of the methods used to collect the data.
“This discrepancy in the numbers shows the speculation and myth that has been woven into the Darusman report and therefore it should be withdrawn as unreliable,” National Languages and Social Integration Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara told the Daily Mirror.
“This discrepancy in the numbers shows the speculation and myth that has been woven into the Darusman report and therefore it should be withdrawn as unreliable,” National Languages and Social Integration Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara told the Daily Mirror.
He also claimed the report by the Panel of Experts appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, contained information gathered from unreliable, third-party sources. “The Darusman report was written in New York. Based on hear say stories, evidence that was not from primary sources. We have done a physical verification on the ground and found that about 8,000 people have died under extraordinary circumstances,” Mr. Nanayakkara charged.
Nearly 8,000 people, including 550 children below the age of 10, were killed in the North during the final stages of the war, according to the Report by the Department of Census and Statistics. However the Darusman Report and other international organisations put the death toll at over 40,000 civilians.
DM