Sri Lanka slams attempts to tarnish country's image over literary festival

The Sri Lankan government today lashed out at media reports which had connected pull out by the award wining authors from the Galle Literary Festival (GLF) to a call by a media right group and some authors to boycott the event.

The government said today that the Turkish Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk and Booker prize winner Ms. Kiran Desai, are not attending the event due to Indian visa restrictions.

Pamuk had informed the organizers of the Galle Literary Festival that he will be unable to participate in the Festival in early January, more than two weeks before the call from some writers and media right groups.

Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy and a few other writers, and the media right group Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) have called the foreign writers to boycott the event to protest Sri Lanka's alleged restrictions on Freedom of Expression.

"Any attempts to link the non-participation of Orhan Pamuk at the GLF to an alleged situation about Freedom of Expression in Sri Lanka is therefore wholly unfounded, and only serves the agenda of those seeking to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka abroad," the Director, Policy Research and Information of the Presidential Secretariat has said.

Pamuk and Ms. Desai are currently in India participating in the Jaipur Literary Festival. Pamuk was expected to come to the GLF after the Jaipur event.

The Sri Lankan government says that Indian High Commission in Colombo had extended all assistance to the organizers of the GLF to resolve the strictly personal concerns of Mr. Pamuk with regard to re-entry to India, on his return after participation in the event.

"It is also known that the All these efforts, which included a written assurance of fully facilitated re-entry to India on his return journey, were to no avail," Presidential Secretariat has said.

"I am very sorry for and frustrated about this decision�I looked forward to seeing the beauties of Sri Lanka very much," the Turkish author has written in an e-mail received by the organizers of the GLF on January 3, 2011.

"Nobody could be sadder than me. I love Sri Lanka and had a super time the last time I was in Galle.," Ms. Desai has also told the organizers.

The Galle Literary Festival will continue as scheduled from Wednesday 26th January through January 30th.

Festival founder Geoffrey Dobbs says the Festival is one of the few forums in the country which actively promote lively and spirited discussions.

"We are looking forward to welcoming writers and festival goers, to engage in debate, conversation and to raise important issues which reflect a post conflict Sri Lanka," Dobbs said in a statement.