Colombo, Human Rights, Human Security, IDPs and Refugees, Jaffna, Media and Communications, Peace and Conflict, Politics and Governance, Puttalam, Trincomalee, Vavuniya

Sri Lanka – Killing for Peace

Unreported World

Channel 4’s recent programme on Sri Lanka broadcast recently in England. As noted here,

… the team making a documentary for Channel 4 was ordered to leave Sri Lanka’s embattled Jaffna peninsula on the orders of the country’s military [even though] reporter Sandra Jordan, camerawoman Siobhan Sinnerton and producer Dushiyanthini Kanagasabapathipillai had received permission from defence authorities in Colombo before flying into Jaffna.

It was not clear why the Channel 4 crew were made to leave, but the private Daily Mirror newspaper quoted a military official as saying they were sent back for their own safety.

“Around 100,000 British tourists holiday in Sri Lanka every year, but thanks to a clampdown on the international media, few realise that away from its famous beaches, a new chapter in the country’s 30-year civil war has opened, in which innocent civilians are paying a bloody price.”