“Business community and the tourists are among the major buyers and we also distribute it to airlines and to the hotel industry”
Sri Lanka authorities have detained the latest edition of The Economist magazine, its distributor in Colombo said.

“We were not allowed to clear our copies of the Economist on Friday by the customs officials,” Vijitha Yapa told BBC Sandeshaya.

The magazine has carried an article on Sri Lanka’s recovery after the decades of war titled “Rebuilding, but at a cost.”

“All what I know is that there is a news item in this copy on Sri Lanka; therefore it is detained,” Mr. Yapa added.

It is not the first time Sri Lanka authorities have detained the copies of the London publication.

Earlier, the Economist was confiscated by customs authorities in Sri Lanka when it published a piece on funds allocated through NGOs for projects in Sri Lanka.

Losing tax revenue

Lakshman Hulugalle, Director General of the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) has told Sunday Times that if foreign publications are “harmful to national security”, they would be disallowed in Sri Lanka.

The authorities say that land will be dished out through open tenders. But local leaders fear plots will instead be handed to henchmen of the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, most of whom come from the Sinhala-dominated south. Demands for preferential treatment for the inhabitants of Trincomalee, whether Tamil, Sinhala or Muslim, may fall on deaf ears.

The Economist

The article in The Economist repotedly have refered to the manner in which land has been distributed in the east for tourism development and to build plush hotels.

It also quotes a soldier who complains that he is “forced to salute the likes of Vinyagamoorthy Muralithran, a former LTTE leader who is now the deputy minister of resettlement, whereas “war heroes” like the former army commander Sarath Fonseka, languish in jail”.

Mr. Yapa said the government loses a considerable amount of tax revenue as a result of continuous detention of foreign publications by the authorities.

“And The Economist is a world renowned magazine that covers not only Sri Lanka but also many other countries. Business community and the tourists are among the major buyers of the magazine and we also distribute it to airlines and to the hotel industry,” he added.

There is no official censorship in Sri Lanka but media watchdogs and human rights groups say the climate of fear still prevails among the media workers despite constant denials of the authorities.

Sri Lanka’s post-war recovery
Rebuilding, but at a cost
Sri Lanka is developing again. But not all can celebrate

Aug 19th 2010 | Trincomalee

WEARING a crisp blue shirt, Kumaraswamy Nageswaran gestures dejectedly to a towering fence that keeps him from his village and his three acres of farmland on the Trincomalee coast. Five years ago, as Tamil Tiger rebels fought desperately with the Sri Lankan army, thousands of families fled Sampur and adjoining villages. They returned in the six months to January this year, only to find themselves victims of post-war development plans.

Sampur fell within an area demarcated during the war as a “high-security zone”, in an effort to keep fighters from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam at bay. The rebels were defeated in May 2009, but nearly 6,000 people still cannot get to their homes and lands, as the security zone remains in place.

Today, inside the fence, Sampur is being cleared for a 500MW coal-powered plant in a joint venture between India and Sri Lanka. Also planned are a jetty and a special economic zone. The government has started a construction spree. The short journey from Kinniya to Mutur still requires arduous travel over potholed tracks and three short trips by rudimentary ferries with spluttering outboard motors. But roads are being tarred and bridges will soon replace the tedious boat rides.

Along the way, towns and villages are limping back to life. Mutur, a predominantly Muslim township near to Sampur, was the site of a particularly bloody battle in 2006. Gradually it is lifting its head: new buildings, including a school, are rising; paint has been daubed on walls. With a bit more aid money, the recovery would move faster yet. Elsewhere in the district, officials have marked out vast stretches of pristine beach-front for tourist development and plush hotels.

The authorities say that land will be dished out through open tenders. But local leaders fear plots will instead be handed to henchmen of the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, most of whom come from the Sinhala-dominated south. Demands for preferential treatment for the inhabitants of Trincomalee, whether Tamil, Sinhala or Muslim, may fall on deaf ears.

Mr Nageswaran tries to organise locals, as the president of a welfare group for displaced people. The government has allocated them alternative land, he says, but it is poor, lacking decent soil or water for cultivation, and without the sea to fish in. Nobody asked them before making plans and they have no access to the “family that governs Sri Lanka” to explain their plight.

Ministers know what is happening. A soldier on the road to Mutur says government officials visit regularly, adding disgustedly that he is forced to salute the likes of Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, a former LTTE leader who is now deputy minister of resettlement, whereas “war heroes” like the former army commander, Sarath Fonseka, languish in jail.

Mr Fonseka, the country’s only four-star general, led the war against the rebels. He was cashiered on August 13th after a court-martial convicted him on three counts of using “traitorous” words and of a failure “to obey garrison or other orders”. The stripping of his rank, medals and decorations was endorsed by the president, whom he had dared to challenge at an election in January.

A wider crackdown against the opposition seems to be under way. Also on August 13th two MPs from Mr Fonseka’s Democratic National Alliance were arrested during what they called a “pro-democracy” protest. Police wielding batons and firing tear gas charged the demonstrators. The country may be developing after the war, but democracy still looks frail.