15.4.2008
In a letter addressed to both the US State Department and
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Sri Lanka's embassy
in Washinton has strongly protested over the screening of
pro-LTTE film 'My daughter the terrorists,' sources said.
The
film, a documentary on the lives and faiths of two female
Tamil Tigers produced by Norwegian filmmaker Beate Arnestad,
was featured in a documentary film festival in Durham,
North Carolina on April 4. According to film critics the
film was a blatant propaganda exercise glorifying suicide
bombers and terrorism in Sri Lanka. They are of the view
that these types of films would encourage would-be suicide
bombers to join terrorist organizations that are a threat
to the interests of the United States and other democratically
elected Governments.
"Earlier,
the Sri Lanka embassy in Washington has urged the authorities
of the US State Department and the FBI to take appropriate
measures in preventing screening of the controversial
film during the four-day festival," Foreign Media
reported earlier this month.
The
film is said to be a distortion of exploitation of the
freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment, an
official statement said in Colombo.
"My
daughter the terrorist" has audaciously portrayed
a 12-year-old Tamil girl's path towards becoming a suicide
bomber, trained and brain-washed by the LTTE terrorist
movement, the release quoted sources from Sri Lankan Foreign
Ministry as saying.
It
goes on to say that the Norwegian producer Beate Arnestad
had arrived in Sri Lanka during the Ceasefire Agreement
period and entered Wanni "without the permission
of the Foreign Ministry or any responsible state body
for the filming of the movie".
"Sri
Lankan expatriates from all over the US have risen in
indignation and fury at the gross insensitivity of the
organisers of the film festival," The release said.
Courtesy
- Government Information