Call for separate state attributed to US Ambassador fake

The US Embassy in Colombo and the Foreign Ministry have said that a fake statement attributed to US Ambassador Julie Chung is in the public domain. They revealed this in response to inquiries made by The Island. We sought clarification from the Foreign Ministry and the US embassy after several persons including former Minister and ex-General Secretary of the Communist Party D. E. W. Gunasekera brought the controversial statement to our attention.

The following is the text of the fake message attributed to Ambassador Chung: “Deeply saddened by the death of Mikhail Gorbachev, who taught capitalism to Communists, and helped break up and turn the Soviet Union into relator’s paradise. If a separate state is to be forged out of the North an East, Sri Lanka would also need a Gorbachev.”