SENAKA WALGAMPAYA, SRI LANKAN HIGH COMMISSIONER TO AUSTRALIA INTERVIEW - 31st May 2009
You will also remember that on last week's program, George Negus
chatted with the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in the aftermath of the
defeat of the Tamil Tigers after a quarter of a century of awful
conflict. It was decided to ask His Excellency whether or not his
Government would grant Dateline a visa to travel freely in the earlier
embattled north of the country.
GEORGE NEGUS: What would happen for instance if I said to you
that on
Monday morning, I would like to have on your desk an application for a
visa to visit your country with a television crew and go to the areas
where that battle was fought over the last few weeks and move about the
north and the east and the fact that anywhere in your country they
wanted to go to see for ourselves the situation as it exist now. A, can
I get that visa, and B, can I go anywhere in your country if I did?
SENAKA WALGAMPAYA, SRI LANKAN HIGH COMMISSIONER TO AUSTRALIA: No, now
that the battle is finished, I think the concerns are the securities of
the media and the people that the government entertained earlier would
no longer be there.
GEORGE NEGUS: You think? But could I apply for a visa and get
it?
SENAKA WALGAMPAYA: Well, you could certainly try, and we will have to
get instructions from Colombo but I don't think there should be any
problem now. Earlier, the media was not allowed to come into the
conflict zone purely for the safety of the media personnel themselves
because as you know, the area was heavily mined by the LTTE and if one
media person got killed or injured, then the Sri Lankan government
would be held responsible.
GEORGE NEGUS: But at the moment, with your military in
control, that
shouldn't be a problem now, should it?
SENAKA WALGAMPAYA: No, as I said, it should not be a problem now.
,b>Earlier this week, we duly lodged our visa applications.
Specifically,
we asked to be able to tour and report sooner rather than later in the
areas where the final battle with the Tamil Tigers took place. We've
heard back from the High Commissioner that Colombo has been inundated
with similar requests from the international media but he's personally
pushing to get us a visa. We're keeping our fingers crossed. A couple
of days ago, journalists were taken on a guided bus tour by the Sri
Lankan military of the camp holding the 300,000 people displaced during
the conflict. Not exactly what we asked for.