Sri Lanka allows foreign media to cover council polls
Sri Lankan government today yielded to the demands of foreign media to allow them to cover this weekend's Eastern Provincial council elections after initial hesitation due to security fears.
"Our apprehensions were only that the foreigners should be protected during the elections. We wanted them to be free from any danger of any possibility of LTTE attack," a defence official told agencies.
"The issue has been sorted out. We have decided to allow the foreigners to cover the elections on producing a valid Media I-card," the official said.
Earlier, it was decided that any foreigner not registered as an election observer cannot be allowed in the Eastern province during the polls. The defence ministry intervened following the objections and decided to reverse the planned restrictions.
Fierce clashes between the Sri Lankan security forces and the LTTE has led to the death of more than 70,000 people since 1983. The government fully liberated the eastern part of the country from the Tamil rebels last July.
Campaigning for the Eastern Provincial Council Elections, scheduled for May 10, ended last night.
Read more,
http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=441880&sid=SAS
"Our apprehensions were only that the foreigners should be protected during the elections. We wanted them to be free from any danger of any possibility of LTTE attack," a defence official told agencies.
"The issue has been sorted out. We have decided to allow the foreigners to cover the elections on producing a valid Media I-card," the official said.
Earlier, it was decided that any foreigner not registered as an election observer cannot be allowed in the Eastern province during the polls. The defence ministry intervened following the objections and decided to reverse the planned restrictions.
Fierce clashes between the Sri Lankan security forces and the LTTE has led to the death of more than 70,000 people since 1983. The government fully liberated the eastern part of the country from the Tamil rebels last July.
Campaigning for the Eastern Provincial Council Elections, scheduled for May 10, ended last night.
Read more,
http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=441880&sid=SAS
No comments:
Post a Comment