Clarification related to comments made on 5th July on Derana TV:
It has been brought to my attention that on the 5th of July certain comments were made by
the State Minister of Urban Development, Coast Conservation, Waste Disposal andCommunity Cleanliness, Hon. Dr. Nalaka Godahewa in an interview on Derana TV as per
below.
This statement is to clarify that I did not have a discussion of this nature with said State
Minister at any point in time.
Thank you,
Asha de Vos.

Interview between Derana TV journalist, Mr Sanka Amarajith and the stateminister of Urban Development, Coast Conservation, Waste Disposal andCommunity Cleanliness, Hon. Dr. Nalaka Godahewa
TV Derana - Derana 360° | රාජ$ අමාත$ ආචා*ය නාලක ෙගාඩෙ2වා
5th July 2021
Term ‘වාරක%’ in Sinhalese and ‘offseason’ in English refers to the South-West monsoon of SriLanka.
The interview happened on-screen as follows
මාධ(ෙ*+යා - -.නය. වාරක% 0සා කැ3බෑව% මැෙරනවාද?
Journalist - Question. Do turtles die because of the offseason?
ඇම8වරයා - මම ඒකට උ<තරය ද%ෙන නෑ. හැබැ? මට @@ධ අය Bයන ෙCවDඅනුව මට Bය%න පුGව% වාරක% වලට< කැ3බෑව% මැෙරනවා Bයලා,පIසරෙ*+ෙය නJ මට Bයලා 8යනවා.
Minister - I don't know the answer to that. But from the things different people have told me,
what I can say is that turtles die because of the offseason as well. Environmentalists havetold me that.

මාධ(ෙ*+යා - දැ% පළෙව0 -.ෙන තම?, අLM -.ෙන. වාරක% 8Nබ< නැත<කැ3බෑෙවා මැෙරනවෙන, O@ෙයP @+හට ඉපෙදන ඕෙනම ෙකෙනP මැෙරනවා.
Journalist - Now a sub-question of the first question. Turtles die regardless of the offseason,
anyone born as a living thing will eventually die.
ඇම8වරයා - අ%න ඒක තම? මම< ඔයාට Bය%ෙන.
Minister - That's exactly what I’m telling you.
මාධ(ෙ*+යා - හI, ෙදව0 එක. වාරක% කාලයට @ෙ.ෂෙය% කැ3බෑෙවා
මැෙරනවා Bයලා ඔබ Lමාට B*ව පIසරෙ*+යා කවුද? නම ෙමාකPද?
Journalist - Okay, the second one. Who was the environmentalist who told you that turtles
die during the offseason specifically? What's the name?
ඇම8වරයා - එෙහම නම Bයන එක හI නෑ ෙන. ලංකාෙව ඉ%න සු-කටපIසරෙ*+යP, ෙ*+0යP ඇ<තටම. තම? මට B*ෙව ඒක එෙහම ෙවනවාBයලා. හැබැ? ඒක එෙහම මහා @ශාල පIමාණෙය% ෙවන ෙදයP ෙනෙම?.
කැ3බෑෙවP ෙද%ෙනP මැෙරනවා ෙව%න පුGව% Bයලා ඇය B*වා. නමු<වාරක% 0සා @ශාල වශෙය% කැ3බෑෙවා මැෙරනවා Bයලා මතයP නෑ.
Minister - It's not correct to mention names like that. A famous environmentalist in SriLanka, a female environmentalist. She told me that it happens in that way. But it's not
something that happens on a large scale. One or two turtles may die, that's what she said.
But there is no such thing as mass turtle deaths that occur during the offseason.
මාධ(ෙ*+යා - දැ% ඔබLමාෙග ආසනය 8ෙය%ෙන ගJපහ +3[Pකෙ\.
සමු]ාස%න +3[PකයP ෙනෙම?. ඔබLමාෙග ගම ෙකාෙහද?
Journalist - Now your seat is in the Gampaha district. Not a coastal district. Where is yourhometown?
ඇම8වරයා - මෙග ගම අJබල%ෙගාඩ.
Minister - I'm from Ambalangoda.
මාධ(ෙ*+යා - ආ_ එෙහන% ඉ8ං වාරක% ඕනතරJ දැකලා ඇ8ෙන. දැ%එතෙකාට ඔබLමාෙග O@තකාෙල දැකලා 8යනවද කැ3බෑෙවා ඔෙහාමකැ3බෑෙවා ෙගාඩ ගහලා 8යනවා?
Journalist - Oh then you may have seen plenty of offseasons. Then now tell if during yourlifetime have you seen turtles stranded like this?

ඇම8වරයා - නෑ නෑ මම දැකලා නෑ.
Minister - No no I haven't seen.
මාධ(ෙ*+යා - ඉ8ං එෙහන% දැ% ෙකාෙහාමද ඒ ඒ එක පIසරෙ*+0යP B*වාBයලා ඒ 0ගමනයට එ%ෙන. @ෙ.ෂෙය%ම මාධ( ඉ+Iෙ\` ඒ -කාශය කරාෙන.
Journalist - So then how can you come to a conclusion based on what was said by a single
female environmentalist. Especially when you made that statement in front of the media.
ඇම8වරයා - නෑ. අ%න එතන තම? සංඛ වරද 8ෙය%ෙ%. දැ% ඔබ පා@bcකරාෙන වචනයP, එෙහම 0ගමනයකට එනවා Bයලා. මම Beම ෙවලාවකඑෙහම 0ගමනයකට ඇ@Dලා නෑ. Beම ෙවලාවක මම එෙහම 0ගමනයක
ඉ%නවා Bයලා Bයල< නෑ. මම ඔබට දැනු< Bයනවා මම එෙහම 0ගමනයක නෑ.
ෙමාකද ඒ සJබ%ධෙය% මම පට% ග%නෙකාටම Bයනවා මට Beම දැනුමP නෑෙමාකද මම පIසරෙ*+ෙයP ෙනෙම?. ඒ 0සා දැ% ඔබ මට යමP B*වා Bයලාමම B*ෙවා< ඉ% අදහ3 ෙකෙර%ෙන නෑ ෙන මම ඒ ගැන දැනුව< Bයලා. මමBය%ෙන ඔබ මට ෙමෙ3 fවා.
Minister - No. That is where the mistake is Sanka. Now you said something about
concluding. At no point have I come to such a conclusion. I have not mentioned that I havecome to such a conclusion anywhere. I’m telling you now too, that I have not reached sucha conclusion. Because at the beginning itself I mentioned that I have no knowledge
regarding the matter as I’m not an environmentalist. If I said something which you told me,
it doesn’t say that I have knowledge of that matter. I only say that you told me this.
මාධ(ෙ*+යා - J J
Journalist - Mmm
ඇම8වරයා - ඉ% අදහ3 ෙකෙර%ෙන නෑ මම ඒක ghග%නවා Bයලා ෙහi මට ඒghබඳව දැනුමP 8යනවා Bයලා. දැ% ඔය, ඔබ ඔය -.නය අහ%ෙ% පහුkය+නවල ෙJක ෙJ ෙලාl වාදයP උනාෙන නාලක ෙගාඩෙ_වා B*වා Bයලා වාරක%කාලයට කැ3බෑෙවා මැෙරනවා Bයලා.
Minister - It doesn’t mean that I accept it or that I have knowledge regarding it. So now, youare asking this question based on the big debate involving Nalaka Godahewa saying thatturtles die during the off-season.
මාධ(ෙ*+යා - ඔ*Journalist - Yesඇම8වරයා - මම ඔබට ෙJ -eCmෙ\, ෙJ ලPෂ සංඛ(ාත ෙnPෂකෙය අහ%
ඉ%න ෙවලාෙව Bයනවා ඒක සJපූpණ @කෘ8යP. මම B*ෙව ඒක ෙනෙම?. මමBයපු සJපූpණ කතාව ෙනෙම? අ_ මා.. එPතරා මාධ( ජාලවP @ෙ.ෂෙය%ම
-චාරය උෙ%. ඒ මම Bයපු සJපූpණ කතාෙව% ෙකාටසP @තර? Bයවුෙ%. මටඒක ඔබට ෙප%න%න පුGව%ද? අවසර 8යනවද?
Minister - I’m telling you in public when a hundred thousand viewers are listening to this, that it is adistortion. That’s not what I said. The entire story I told was not uh... what a particular media
channel specifically broadcasted. It was a part of my full talk. Can I show it to you? Do you havepermission?
මාධ(ෙ*+යා - ඔ* ඔ* අg බලමු.
Journalist - Yes, yes. Let’s see it.
ඇම8වරයා - ඔබට අවසර 8යනවන% මම ඒ Bයපු සJපූpණ කතාව, ඒ Pstඑක ෙප%ව%න%. දැ% ෙමතන+ මෙග% මාධ(ෙ*+ෙයP අහනවා, ෙJ ෙJ ෙJකඋෙ% එJ එP3 පpD ෙනෟකාව k0ෙගන මම vත%ෙන +න ෙදක Lනකට ප3ෙස,එතෙකාට ෙවරළට කැ3බෑෙවP එෙහම නැ<ත% ෙද%ෙනP @තර ෙගාඩගහලා8බුණා. ෙJ අද, දැ% අg ද%නවා වෙw @ශාල -මාණෙ\ මරණ eCධ ෙවලා 8බුෙxනෑ ඒ ෙවලාෙව. ඒ ෙවලාෙව ඔහු අහනවා ෙJ ස<L ගැන ඇහුවහම මම Bයපුකතාව මම සJපූpණෙය% tෙD කරලා ෙප%න%නං. ඊට ප3ෙස අg ඒ ගැන කතාකරමු.
Minister - If you have permission I’ll show you my full talk, that video clip. This must havebeen two, three days after the M X Pearl ship’s fire when there weren't as many deaths as
there are now and only one or two turtle strandings had been reported. A journalist asked
me about the dead animals. I’ll play the video of my response and we can talk about it afterthat.
මාධ(ෙ*+යා - හා
Journalist - Okayඇම8වරයාෙw zරකථනෙ\ 8ෙබනා |}ෙයi පටයP ෙප%ව?. පහ8% 8ෙබ%ෙ%එම ~පරාමු Lළ ඇ8වන සංවාදය?.
The Minister plays a video on his phone. The following is the conversation in thevideo.

මාධ(ෙ*+යා 2 - ඇම8Lමා ෙJ ෙවනෙකාට මුහුෙද ඉ%න ස<<ව?% +k% +ගටමමැෙරනවා, ෙගාඩට එනවා. දැ% ඔබ Lම%ලා ෙJ සJබ%ධව ෙමානවහI අරං8යනවද, ෙJ ගැන ෙහායලා බලනවද, ෙමාකද ෙවලා 8යන ත<ෙව, අ•<ම ත<ෙව.
Journalist 2 - Minister, currently many marine animals have died and they keep washing up
on shore repeatedly. Have you taken any steps towards this? Are there any investigations
happening? What has happened and what is the current status?
ඇම8වරයා - දැ% ෙම%න ෙමෙහම කාරණයP 8යනවා. දැ% අෙt පැ<ෙත%ෙවරළ, ෙවරළ සංරPෂණය පැ<ෙත% ආරPෂා B€ම පැ<ෙත% මම vත%ෙන අgඋපIම වශෙය% කටයුL කරලා 8යනවා. අg දැPකා ෙJ ළඟ+ ලංකාෙ* ඉ%න
සු-කටම පIසරෙ*+0යP වන ආශා } ෙවා3 මහ<‚ය ෙJ ෙJ ෙවN ෙපi3ƒඑකP දාලා Pst එකP දාලා 3„8 කරලා 8Nබා අෙt අමාත(ාංශයට ෙJ ෙවරළසංරPෂණය B€ම සඳහා ෙJ ස8 ෙදක Lන ඇLලත අg ෙමානතරJ කා…Pෂමවඒ කා… කරාද Bයන එක. එතෙකාට මුහුෙC eCධ වන ෙC අgට සJපූpණෙය%පාලනය කර%න බෑ. ෙJ වාරක% කාලෙ\ ෙබාෙහ අනLM ෙව%නට පුGව%. දැ%උදාහරණයP වශෙය% මම පIසරෙ*+ෙයP ෙනෙම?. නමු< මට සමහරපIසරෙ*+ෙය මම දැPකා සමාජ ජාල වල< Bයලා 8යනවා ඒ වෙwම සමහරපIසරෙ*+ෙය මා< එPක සෘජුව< Bයලා 8යනවා වාරක% කාලයට ස<LඅනLM වලට ලP ෙවනවා. ඉ8ං වාරක% කාලයට ෙගාඩ†මට සෙතP ගහෙගනආවහම ඒක අසාමාන( eCmයP ෙව%ෙ% නෑ නමු< ෙJ ෙවලාෙව ෙJ නැෙ*අනLර 8යන 0සා හැම ෙකෙනPම ෙJක සෘජුව සJබ%ධ කර%න බලනවා ඒකට.
ඒකට සJබ%ධද නැCද Bයලා මම ද%ෙන නෑ. නමු< වඩා< සුzසු ෙC තම? ෙහාඳදැනුව< පIසරෙ*+ෙයPෙග% අහන එක ෙJක අසාමාන( ත<වයPද Bයලා.
Minister - Now the matter is this. I think we have done up to our maximum capacity inconserving and protecting the coasts. Recently, we saw one of the most famousenvironmentalists in Sri Lanka, Ms Asha de Vos posted a web post, a clip, thanking ourministry for the efficient work done in conserving the coasts in just two to three weeks. We
cannot completely control everything that happens out in the sea. There can be many
accidents in these offseasons. Now, for example, I’m not an environmentalist, but I saw
some environmentalists mentioned on social media and some even told me directly thatanimals face accidents in the offseason. So it’s not unusual to see a stranding during theoffseason. But right now with the threats of the ship, everyone tries to directly connect theseevents to the ship. I don’t know whether it’s connected or not. But what’s best is to ask thisfrom a knowledgeable environmentalist whether it is an abnormal incident or not.

මාධ(ෙ*+යා 2 - ඇම8Lමා ෙJෙක ප€Pෂණ වාpතා තාම ඇ@Dලා නෑ, ෙJ
ස<<ව?%ෙග, ඒවා ඉPම0% ෙද%න බලාෙපාෙරා<L ෙවනවද?
Journalist 2 - Minister there aren’t any test reports of the animals available yet. Are you
hoping to give them soon?
ඇම8වරයා - නෑ. ප€Pෂණ වාpතා එ%න ඕෙ% වනO| ෙදපාpතෙJ%Lවට. දැ%මෙw අමාත(ාංශයට ඒ සJබ%ධ බලයP නෑ. වනO| අමාත(ාංශෙය% අgඉDලලා 8යනවා පුGව% තර% ඉPමනට ෙJ ගැන -කාශයP කර%න Bයලා.
Minister - No. Those test reports should come to the Wildlife Department. My ministry
doesn’t look over that. We have requested the Wildlife Department to make a statement
regarding this as soon as possible.
zරකථනෙය% ෙප%වූ |}ෙයi පටය අවසාන?. දැ% නැවත< මැ+Iය Lළ ezවනසංවාදය පහ8% දැPෙ*.
The video played on the mobile phone is over. Following is the continuation of theoriginal interview.
ඇම8වරයා - දැ% සංඛ මට ත<පරයP ෙද%න.
Minister - Now give me a second Sanka.
මාධ(ෙ*+යා - ඔ*. ඔබLමා නම B*ෙව නැ8 උනාට ඔය හඬපටෙ\ 8ෙබනවාආශා } ෙවා3 මහ<‚ය.
Journalist - Yes. Even though you didn't mention the name, that tape had it, Ms Asha deVos.
ඇම8වරයා - ආශා } ෙවා3 මහ<‚ය, අgව -ශංසාවට ලP කළා Bයලා මමB*ෙව.
Minister - What I said was, Ms Asha de Vos praised us.
මාධ(ෙ*+යා - ඒ Bය%ෙන ඔය වාරක% කතාව B*ෙව එL‚ය ෙනෙම?ද?
Journalist - So it wasn’t her who said the story about the offseason?
ඇම8වරයා - අ_ එL‚ය<. ඒක මම @තරP ෙනෙම? ඒක එL‚ය< සමාජ ජාලාවල එL‚යෙw මතය ඒකම? Bයලා -කාශ කරලා 8බුණා. ඒ Bය%ෙන
පIසරෙ*+0යP වශෙය% ඇය ඒ මතෙ\ ඉ%නවා. නමු< මම ෙකෙනP ගැනපුCගsකවම කතා කර%න කැම8 නෑ ෙමාකද එL‚යට< ඇ8 ෙවනක% මඩගහනවා ෙJ දව3 වල ඒක B*වා Bයලා. එL‚යෙw 8යන දැනුම, ඉ% අDපමාˆයPව< නැ8 අය එL‚යට උඩ පැන පැන තලනවා ෙJ දව3වල එෙහම B*වාBයලා. ෙමාකද එL‚ය පැහැ+sවම එවැ0 මතයP -කාශ කරලා 8යනවා.
හැබැ? සංඛ මම නැවත< Bයනවා ෙJ ෙJ ෙJ ෙවලාෙව @ශාල කැ3බෑෙවා
-මාණයP, ස<L -මාණයP, ෙඩාD‰% -මාණයP මැIලා 8යනවා. අg උසා@යටkvDලා ඒක B*වා. ඉ8ං ඒ 0සා අර මෙග% ඔය -.නය අහපු ෙවෙD 8Nබ
ත<වය< අද ත<වය< ෙදකP. ෙJ -.නය අහ%ෙන මෙග% ෙJ නැව අනLරකට
ලPෙවලා +න ෙදක Lනකට ප3ෙස ඒ 0සා මම ෙJ Pst එෙP 8යන කාරනාfපයP ඔබට මතP කර%නට කැම8?. මම Bයනවා මුs%ම අg අෙt වගfමඉටු කරලා 8යනවා ඒ Bය%ෙ% ෙවරළ සුCද B€ෙJ කා… කරලා 8යනවා. අහන-.නය ස<L +k% +ගටම මැෙරනවා ෙJ සJබ%ධෙය% ෙමාකPද ත<වයBයලා. එතෙකාට මම Bයනවා, මුහෙු C eCධ ෙවන ෙCවD අgට පාලනය කර%න බෑ,ෙවරළ පාලනය කර%න පුGව% මුහෙු C eCධ වන ෙCවD අgට පාලනය කර%න බෑ.
ෙJ වාරක% කාලෙ\ ෙබාෙහ අනLM ෙව%න පුGව%. මම ෙJ Bය%ෙන
කැ3බෑෙවා ගැන ෙනෙම? ෙබාෙහ අනLM ෙව%න පුGව% වාරක% කාෙල.
උදාහරණයP වශෙය% මම පIසරෙ*+ෙයP ෙනෙම? නමු< මම දැPකා සමහරපIසරෙ*+ෙය සමාජ ජාලා වල sයලා 8යනවා ඒ සමඟම සමහර පIසරෙ*+ෙයමා සමඟ සෘජුව< Bයලා 8යනවා වාරක% කාලයට ස<L අනLM වලටලPෙවනවා Bයලා. එතෙකාට මම Bය%ෙන ෙවන ෙකෙනP Bයපු කතාවP. හැබැ?
ඊටප3ෙස මම Bයනවා නමු< ෙJ ෙවලාෙව නැෙ* අනLර 8යන 0සා හැමෙකෙනPම ඒකට සෘජුව සJබ%ධ කර%න බලනවා. ඒකට සJබ%ධද නැCදBයලා මම ද%ෙන නෑ.
Minister - Uh.. she also. It wasn’t just me, she also stated on social media that she has thesame opinion. So as an environmentalist, that means she has this opinion. But I don’t like todiscuss any individuals particularly because she has also now become a target ofmudslinging, because of this statement. People without even a drop of the knowledge she
possesses are now attacking her continuously because she said this. Because she clearlystated this opinion. But Sanka I’m repeating this, this, right now there are a huge number ofturtle, animal and dolphin deaths that have happened. We told this at the court. So thepresent situation and the situation when that question was asked from me, is totallydifferent. I was asked this question after two, three days of the fire so I would like to remind
you of a few things from that clip. First, we have fulfilled our duty, meaning we have done
the task of cleaning the beach. The question asked was what measures have been taken

regarding the increasing deaths of the animals. To this, I said we can’t entirely control
everything that happens out in the sea. We can control what’s happening on the coasts but
not in the sea. In these offseasons, many accidents may occur. I’m not talking about turtles,
many accidents can happen in the offseason. For example, I’m not an environmentalist, butI saw some environmentalists mentioned on social media and some even told directly thataccidents happen in the offseason. Therefore, I’m saying something which someone else
said. But after that I said, because of the threat from the ship, everyone is trying to makeconnections between the ship and the deaths. I don’t know whether there is a connection ornot.
මාධ(ෙ*+යා - J
Journalist - Mmm…
ඇම8වරයා - ඒ මම Bය%ෙන ෙJ ෙJ ෙJක සJබ%ධද නැCද Bයලා මම ද%ෙනනෑ. මම vත%ෙන වඩා<ම සුzසු ෙC තම? ෙහාඳ දැනුමP 8ෙබනපIසරෙ*+ෙයPෙග% අහන එක ෙJක අසාමාන( ත<වයPද Bයලා. දැ% ෙJෙකමාධ( වල kෙ\ ෙJ කෑDල නැLව එතෙකාට මාධ(වල මම මුs% Bයන කෑDල<නෑ අ%8මට Bයන කෑDල< නෑ අර පIසරෙ*+යා B*ව B*ෙව කෑDල පමණ?
ය%ෙන. එතෙකාට හIයට මම Bයනවා වෙw කතාව. ඕක තම? ෙවbච
පටලැ@Dල.
Minister - What I’m saying is that I don’t know whether it’s connected or not. What I think themost appropriate thing to do would be to ask a knowledgeable environmentalist whether thisis an unusual thing or not. Now the media reported this without this part. So the first partand the last part are missing and only the part where I quoted the environmentalist is being
broadcast. It then looked like I was telling the story. That was the mess that happened.