Pro-govt protesters disrupted rights meeting: Lanka opposition

Colombo: Sri Lanka’s main opposition party UNP today claimed that a human rights meeting organised at its headquarters was disrupted by government supporters. Government supporters gathered at the UNP headquarters in the suburb of Pitakotte to disrupt the meeting of the ‘Force for National Harmony’, a joint opposition initiative on human rights and democracy. [caption id=“attachment_1228357” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Channel 4’s British journalist Callum Macrae speaks to journalists inside a train as Sri Lankans blocked the train in protest against a documentary made by him, in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. AP. [/caption] “My car was surrounded by this unruly mob who tried to break open my car window in order to pull me out of it,” leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said. The protesters said the UNP was harbouring the television crew of the British Channel 4. “We can’t allow the UNP to welcome Channel 4 who had acted against Sri Lanka”, a protester in the group said. Channel 4 has come under fire for their documentaries highlighting human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan troops during the last phase of the military conflict with the LTTE. Earlier, the Channel 4 crew was turned back from heading toward the northern town of Vavuniya after protesters sat on the rail track at Anuradhapura and did not allow the train to proceed further. Police intervened and the crew was sent back to Colombo. Commenting on the incident at a public event, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was disturbed by the protest which prevented Channel 4 from going to the north of the country. PTI