Sri Lankans arrest UK news team

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

A British Channel 4 News team has been arrested in Sri Lanka after reporting allegations of abuse in camps for displaced Tamils, the broadcaster said.

The Sri Lankan Defence Minister ordered Asia correspondent Nick Paton-Walsh, cameraman Matt Jasper and producer Bessie Du to leave the country.

The report contained claims that dead bodies were left where they fell and allegations of sexual abuse.
...
Police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekera told reporters the trio were arrested in the eastern city of Trincomalee on Saturday. He said investigations were continuing.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8042170.stm

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Channel 4's own coverage of this:

In a report on Tuesday 5th May, featuring the first material shot independently in an internment camp run by the Sri Lankan army, Channel 4 News broadcast interviews with aid workers who claimed there had been ill-treatment of Tamil civilians interned in a camp in the north of the country.

The aid workers said that children were being separated from their parents in the camps and dead bodies were being left out in the open for days, as people fought for food and water.

And they also said that women were being sexually humiliated, being forced to bathe publicly and sometimes abducted by soldiers.

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/correspondent+expelled+from+sri+lanka/3136157

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. No, it won't do anything like that, but it makes the Sri Lankan government look bad

Expelling journalists from other countries tends to be done by totalitarian governments; especially when the story they were covering was interviewing aid workers. It puts them in the same category as the Sudanese or Zimbabwean governments.

[nyy1998]

3. Yeah, Sri Lanka wouldn't want to lose their status

as a Commonwealth nation. So expect the UK to threaten trade sanctions or something lesser. The trade impact could destroy the Sri Lanka economy. Tourism and trade is a huge part of their economy.

[karynnj]

4. Tourism has to be near non-existent now

We went to Sri Lanka a year ago, as my daughter completed a study abroad program. That was before things got immensely worse. My husband, a younger daughter and I joined the daughter who studied there to spend 10 days seeing the places she liked best and visiting the 2 wonderful families that she lived with while there.

In all the places we were in, the hotels were clearly way below capacity. The lack of tourists allowed us to stay in resorts of a higher quality than we have anywhere else in the world. (We took the travel agents' recommendations.) In many, we were among the few Caucasians. My daughter was actually recognized by people who saw her months before - but she stood out not just for being Caucasian, but speaking basic Sinhalese. The country is stunningly beautiful and has a wealth of fascinating things to see - from Hindhu temples, Buddhist shrines to incredible nature ... and tea plantations. In addition to our daughter explaining all the religious sites we saw (she had visited with experts from the University and this is her major), we had a guide/driver. He told us that tourism which was the leading source of revenue at one place was then around the 20th. From memory the top three last year were - tea, money from people working abroad (especially in the Middle East), and apparel manufacture.

I assume that the tea and apparel would be hurt a huge amount by UK trade sanctions.

Caveat - my knowledge of Sri Lanka is based on 10 days there and things I was told by a daughter there for 4 months. So, everything I wrote should be taken with a grain of salt. It is accurate to my knowledge - but my knowledge is pretty slight.

[nyy1998]

6. My experience with Sri Lanka also comes wih a grain of salt

I've been to India numerous times for 1-2 months where there is readily more information on Sri Lanka then you'll find in the US and some of my best friends actually lived in Sri Lanka for a couple of years.


As for trade and this is a response to the post below mine about China and Iran(not karynnj). Both the US and UK combine for about 43% of Sri Lanka's total imports. Even if there more money coming in from Iran and China, Sri Lanka is already running a trade deficit. Unlike the US economy, they won't be able to handle a large loss of imports since their economy is still agriculture-based. So the Sri Lanka politicos are playing with fire here pissing off their two biggest customers. Then again Sri Lanka politicans were never able to manage their country correctly.

[Alamuti Lotus]

5. actually, Sri Lanka is caring less and less what US/Britain think

They have money coming in from China and Iran, the old influences are fading fast.

[Vehl]

7. yes

They even deported some western diplomats because they(diplomats) were critical of Srilanka's blatant human rights abuses. Iran and China fund the majority of lankan military purchases, and lanka in return gives them bases/listening stations.

China also veto's any motion brought to the security council to investigate/censure Srilanka over its human rights abuses.