By Prabhath Withana
Former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Russia Udayanga Weeratunga has challenged MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe to come for a TV debate on the latter’s allegation that Ukrainian tourists had brought COVID-19 to the country.
Weeratunga said that MP Rajapakshe had made that allegation in an open letter to President Gotabaya Rajapakshe.
“The Ukrainian and Kazakhstan tourists who came here as a tourist bubble underwent PCR tests. As per the test results 99.6 percent of those tourists were free from the virus. Therefore it is unjust for MP Rajapakshe to make such wild allegations and call them COVID-19 bubbles. He is not only insulting those tourists but also our people numbering around three million engaged in the tourism industry. He does not understand this because he still could not secure a ministerial post,” Weeratunga said.
“We must learn from the Maldives. As at July 31, this year the Maldives received 617,791 tourists and of them 32 percent were from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. During the same period, the total number of tourists that arrived in this country was 19,337. It shows that the Maldives had received 32 times more tourists than we. Therefore I am ready for public debate on this issue and challenge MP Rajapakshe for a live debate on any television channel of his choice.?
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