SRI LANKAN ARMY CONTINUES ITS DIRTY WAR AGAINST TAMIL PEOPLE

Journalist who reported on internment camps
in Sri Lanka tells his story

Nick Paton Walsh
The Guardian,
Sunday 10 May 2009

A Channel 4 News team was deported from Sri Lanka yesterday.
Here its Asia correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, tells what
happened:

When Sri Lanka's defence secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa,
rang he got quickly to the point.

"Is this Channel 4? You have been accusing my soldiers of
raping civilians? Your visa is cancelled, you will be
deported. You can report what you like about this country,
but from your own country, not from here."

Our 'crime' had been to broadcast a report from internment
camps at the northern town of Vavuniya, which can only be
reached with the permission of the Sri Lankan army. The
army orchestrates the visits and escorts you wherever you
go. But someone working for us had managed independently to
get a camera into the camps and record a series of
interviews. The allegations were startling: bodies left for
days, children crushed in the rush for food, the sexual
abuse of women, disappearances.

We went out of our way to get a government response: the
army spokesman, Brigadier Nanayakkara, eventually agreed to
appear on camera saying any wrongdoing would be punished.

The day after the broadcast I went to the media centre for
national security. There [military censor] Lakshman
Hulugalle explained that I had damaged the country's image
and would later hear of their 'measures' against me. Three
days later came the call from the defence secretary.

What followed was 10 hours in police custody, searches of
our vehicle and a barrage of questions, asked to sign
statements which we had not given. We were finally driven
to the capital, Colombo, and deported.

Now that we're out of the country Mr Hulugalle claims we
have admitted we had 'done something wrong'. That is
nonsense. The government is intolerant of a critical press.
Journalists get killed, most notoriously Lasantha
Wickrematunge, an editor assassinated in January. The line
we at Channel 4 crossed was at passport control.

But you realise what crossing the line for Sri Lankan
journalists means.