Master Mohamed Jaisham Ibrahim receives Gold Medal for Civilian Bravery for Asia from Justice C. G. Weeramantry, former Vice President of the International Court of Justice

The recently concluded National Civilian Bravery Awards would have cost the organisers and sponsors approximately Rs. 4 million, Kasun P. Chadraratne, President of the Foundation for Civilian Bravery, Sri Lanka said. But only a fraction had gone to the actual heroes.

Fielding questions, Chadraratne, told The Island, this included cash payments to recipients of awards including Mohamed Jaisham Ibrahim from the Maldives and Ravi Kumar Tandon from India. The founder of the civilian bravery awards said he didn’t want to categorise the payment as cash awards but a token of appreciation. The money would have covered the travelling expenses of several recipients from the provinces including the Vanni, he said.

Ibrahim, a Grade 9 student who had thwarted an assassination attempt on the Maldivian President Gayoom on January 8, this year had been awarded Gold Medal for Civilian Bravery for Asia and a cash payment of Rs. 10,000. Tandon who had rescued a girl stuck in-between a moving train and the platform was awarded the Silver Medal for Civilian Bravery for Asia and a cash payment of Rs. 10,000.

Charitha Rangana Prabath Seneviratne, a student counsellor attached to the University of Sri Jayawardenapura, had received the Budal Na Gold Medal and a cash payment of Rs. 15,000 for going to the assistance of some of the victims of an LTTE attack at Nugegoda on November 28, last year. The Maharaja Television had been awarded the Nur Aleem Media award for revealing Seneviratne’s rescue effort.

Three silver medalists, namely Shehan Damien Mariyadas, G. H. Kumara Bandula and A. Ranatunga had been awarded Rs. 7,500 each while 21 recipients of Certificates of Merit had received Rs. 5,000 each.

Three others whose acts of bravery had received the attention of the foundation had been paid Rs. 1,000 each. Chadraratne said Rev. Farther Alfred Alexander and Ven. Badulle Ariyawansa thera, too, had been honoured. "Of course, there weren’t cash awards for them," he said. Interestingly none of the recipients were women.

He said the foundation hadn’t paid for the airfare, food and accommodation of the two overseas recipients. "In fact, we should have provided them with airfare and full accommodation," he said, acknowledging it would have been better if the overseas recipients’ costs were met.

Eagle Insurance had been the principal sponsor.