Sri Lankan university students in US respond to Amnesty’s anti-Sri Lanka campaign

The Sri Lankan Students Association of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, USA organised an awareness event on Sri Lanka’s conflict and on post-conflict developments on 15 November 2012.

During the event the student group screened ‘Freedom Speaks,’ an independent investigative documentary about Sri Lanka’s conflict to an audience of university students, lecturers, Sri Lankan community members and media.

President of the Student Association Kasun Fernando said that the event was organised as a response to the malicious propaganda campaign carried out by the Amnesty International USA (AI-USA) against Sri Lanka. He said the Sri Lankan students were shocked to learn how Amnesty’s campaign has been designed to mislead unsuspecting audiences when they attended a movie screening organised by the INGO. “Recently, Amnesty screened a movie titled ‘The truth that wasn’t there’ at the university. We too attended the event as it was heavily advertised as a movie about Sri Lanka. We could not believe how that documentary distorted the truth that we knew very well about our country. We questioned the authenticity of the movie’s content from the Amnesty representatives but they were clueless and unable to answer,” Fernando said.

“Unfortunately, for an audience that barely knows where Sri Lanka is, this type of propaganda can be very effective. They form their opinion about our country watching these misleading documentaries and listening to the stories told to them by Amnesty reps. This is why we decided to screen ‘Freedom Speaks’ during this event,” he added.

‘Freedom Speaks – The Unspoken Ground Realities of Sri Lanka’s Conflict’ was produced by a team of young Sri Lankan film enthusiasts in 2011. The documentary was selected for the four best documentaries produced in Sri Lanka at the SIGNIS awards 2012.

The Sri Lankan student organisation has also released a press statement urging Sri Lankan student groups in US and elsewhere to organise similar events on behalf of their motherland.