Sri Lanka It's Happening

October 27, 2007

Moderates everywhere take government news releases with a pinch of salt. Here in Sri Lanka even die hard supporters of the government learnt to do that long time ago. But until the attack on the Anuradhapura airport, it wasn't difficult to find a zealot or two who still believed whatever the military spokesman said like the gospel truth.

On the day of the attack the government was late to issue any releases. When they did, they said only 3 aircraft had been damage and 21 elite LTTE terrorists were killed. One of the aircraft was a helicopter was downed by a technical fault.

Since the media, specially international newspapers, magazines and TV channels don't think much of the government announcements, they soon started to convey the terrorist's version of the story ; that 18 aircraft were totally distroyed.

The local journalists who dared to carry that story were accused of being traitors and terrorists themselves. But as they say the government was pretty soon forced to admit the truth. Eight aircraft had been destroyed and 10 damaged. The helicopter that fell from the sky due to technical fault was bought down by friendly fire.

So where do you stand now?

Posted by raditha at October 27, 2007 12:44 PM