Responding to SL government-backing media allegations against exiled, Sinhala media rights activist Mr Sunanda Deshapriya at Geneva, involving the name of the President of Maldives, the President’s Office of the Republic of Maldives came out with a press release on Tuesday that sounded as though the President of Maldives had thought Mr Deshapriya a Tamil.
Titled as “Statement from Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair regarding recent media allegations concerning Mr Sunanda Deshapriya,” the statement from the President’s Office said:
“The President of the Maldives would like to express his good wishes to all Tamil people. The Tamil people have always been like brothers and sisters to Maldivians. The President would like to see peace and harmony in our region and has expressed his desire for all people to live peacefully together.”
The incident that made President Nasheed to come out with the statement was the allegation in a section of the Sri Lankan media that Mr Deshapriya in response to his question put to President Nasheed at Geneva received a quip that the questioner had come to act against the country and not for the country.
The Maldivian President’s Office has come out with an irrelevant statement on the alleged incident, making readers to wonder the connection between “allegations concerning Mr Sunanda Deshapriya and the President’s “good wishes to all Tamil people.
However, news sources on Wednesday said that according to Mr Deshapriya no such incident had taken place at Geneva involving him and the Maldivian President on 12 September, as cited by the Sri Lankan media.
On 12 September when Sri Lankan government screened “Lies Agreed Upon,” a video campaign shielding genocide and offensive to the Tamil struggle, the Maldivian President was one among those who were present.
As President Nasheed states, the Tamil people have always been like brothers and sisters to Maldivians. The lawyer who argued the case of Maldivian independence with the British in 1965 was Prof Nadarajah, an Eezham Tamil. Nasheed himself must have studied under Tamil teachers. Nobody thinks Mr. Nasheed has ‘poor understanding’ about Eezham Tamils. But unfortunately and in an unwarranted way he helps to shield the genocide of Tamils by State and Rajapaksa regime of Sri Lanka. There is no need for him to stoop down to meddle with a question of life and blood of Eezham Tamils, commented a teacher in Maldives.