Tourists not allowed to visit Jaffna Public Library

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 October 2010, 17:16 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers posted at the entrance of Jaffna Public Library did not allow any of the tourists who wished to visit the library Saturday, sources in Jaffna said. SLA officials had informed the Chief Librarian of Jaffna Public Library that tourists will not be permitted to visit the library according to instruction issued by government authorities. This instruction had come in the wake of a gang of Sinhala tourists storming into the library and vandalizing the premises of the Thanthai Chelva memorial monument located next to the library last on 22 October. SLA authorities had posted four soldiers at the entrance of the library Friday to guard the library along with the guards of Jaffna Municipal Council Administration.

The tourists from Southern parts of Sri Lanka as well as the students who had come from Vavuniyaa and Mannaar on educational tour were not allowed to enter the library.

Sri Lanka Minister Douglas Devananda had suggested a system of allowing tourists to visit the library in groups of ten persons at a time so as to please the Sinhala tourists from the South, in a meeting he had convened Saturday.

The sudden decision of the government taken on this issue had come as a surprise to Douglas Devanda who had suggested the above system, sources in Jaffna said.