Finance and Mass Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday condemned the monk-led mob attack on Rohingya Muslims sheltered by the UNHCR in Mount Lavinia.
In a statement the former Foreign Affairs Minister said – “I would like to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the attack on Rohingya refugees – the refugees who were under the care of UNHCR yesterday, in Mount Lavinia by a group of thugs in robes.”
He said this was not the first time Sri Lanka had sheltered Rohingya survivors from Myanmar and listed two examples in the recent history of the country where Sri Lanka offered support via the UNHCR to persecuted Rohingya Muslims.
“I condemn these actions not only as the Minster in charge of Media, but also as a Buddhist – a Buddhist who is very proud of the fact that Buddhism is a religion of non-violence and compassion,” the Minister said.
Excerpts of the statement follow:
‘I would like to condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the attack on Rohingya refugees – the refugees who were under the care of UNHCR yesterday, in Mount Lavinia by a group of thugs in robes.
These refugees – thirty of the them, from Myanmar, were rescued at the sea by the Sri Lanka Navy in April this year and were under the care of the UNHCR, waiting to be resettled elsewhere – in the United States or Canada.
This is not the first time Sri Lanka has give temporary shelter to such refugees – back in March 2008, the Sri Lanka Navy rescued survivors off a boat after they were found adrift in the high seas, and they were kept here until 2012, when they were resettled in the United States.
In 2013, the Sri Lanka Navy rescued two boatloads of Rohingya survivors in the Eastern coast of Sri Lanka – 32 of them, and they too were kept under the care of the UNHCR until they were settled in Canada and the United States of America.’
