Though your correspondent Mr Berenger generally tends to distort what I tell him when he calls, in his report today headlined 'NGOs smuggling IDPs out - Govt' he has been even less precise than usual, in pursuing his agenda of polarisation. When he said that he had not been given permission to visit the welfare camps, I noted that that may have had something to do with the approach of the Times in general, since other journalists had ready access, and today's report provides confirmation for this view. 

With regard to the question of paramilitaries, I mentioned that this had been reported in certain foreign media outlets, but that there was no mention of this at the meeting of protection organisations, and that it seemed wholly erroneous. There is no need therefore to look into such reports, and I certainly did not say that there were reports of paramilitaries loitering in the camps after gaining access through NGOs. The question of NGOs in connection with paramilitaries never came up, since the whole question of paramilitaries was created by particular foreign reporting.

With regard to the screening, that has nothing to do with the reports of removals, since obviously, in the context of so many seeking refuge together, Government has to be careful to ensure that LTTE elements are not mixed in with the civilians who fled the LTTE. That had been stated from the start.

I did not talk of certain persons with the connivance of NGO workers being involved in any 'plot', indeed I said specifically that I had no details of whose vehicles had been involved in the alleged incident, but that that together with the crowding had prompted restrictions.

Courtesy: SCOPP