Sri Lanka to protest British travel advisory
Sri Lanka will protest a travel advisory issued by Britain that warns its citizens of an upsurge in nationalism and anti-Western rhetoric in the island nation, a Sri Lankan official said Monday.
The travel advisory issued by the British Foreign Office would adversely impact thousands of British tourists to Sri Lanka, Xinhua quoted External Affairs Ministry Secretary Karunathilaka Amunugama as saying.
Amunugama said the government would voice its protest and work to get the notice changed.
“Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Britain Chris Nonis has already been asked to take this up with the British authorities and we expect positive results,” Amunugama said.
The advisory said that travellers should be aware that the end of the military conflict has seen an upsurge of nationalism in Sri Lanka. As a result, anti-Western rhetoric has increased.
It said: “Political rallies in Sri Lanka have on occasion turned violent. British nationals should avoid any political gatherings or rallies and beware of spontaneous large gatherings.”
It also cautioned British nationals to make arrangements through reputed travel companies and exercise appropriate caution when travelling around Sri Lanka.
“Women should take particular care when travelling alone, or in small groups, and carry personal alarms,” the advisory said.
However, the travel advisory said violent crimes against foreigners were relatively infrequent.
Sri Lanka’s robust post-war tourism sector continued to grow, posting a 7.8 percent rise in July from a year earlier, according to government data.
In the first seven months of the year, Sri Lanka’s tourism grew 16.7 percent in comparison to 2011, with British tourists marking the second highest arrival rate after Indians.
Revenue from tourism has increased 24.3 percent to around USD 460 million this year, according to the Central Bank.
Visitors from Western Europe have continued to grow, with Britain generating the most tourists at 13,643, up 13.7 percent in July from a year earlier.
Xinhua said a 32-year-old Briton was killed on Boxing Day last year in the southern part of the island, and a ruling party politician has been arrested in the case. (IANS)
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It is no secret that Tamils in Britain is of vital importance to the politicians there.
Those tamils have already pierced the noses of those gullible political cows and have put a rope through those holes and having a comfortable ride on the back of those cows, holding well to the rope.
The cows are eating the “vote” grass given by those riding on their backs, and therefore cows happily do whatever those riders ask them to do.
We have to educate those cows about what has happened to them and get them to take the riders off their backs, so the cows can resore their dignity.
A Britisher was brutally killed by cutting his throat and his girlfriend gang raped by a Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman in Down South.
No Action is taqken until now for the British National who was killed and his girl raped by 8 men including the Chairman of the Pradesiya Saba. also Duminda silva raped a 13 year old girl. Very recently another chairman of a down south Pradesiya Saba raped a 14 year old girl with his friends. What Briton has told is TRUE.
Dear Manjula,
Could you please respond to blogs 2 & 3; the blogger’s names suggest they are Sinhala Buddhist citizens.
Dear Chumpa,
I don’t understand why you want me to reply to unrelated comments in blogs 2 & 3. None of them were related to what I was saying and none of them are excuses for Britain to give poor travel advisory either.
I don’t know why you dragged the race and religion of the bloggers to the argument either. That shows you are a racist and you like to drag those silly things to the argument un-necessarily, which shows how bankrupt you are in terms of debating ability.
If you want you may reply to those blogs. I am only replying to you since you addressed to me directly.
I am in no means suggesting that Sri lanka is way better or worse than any other country in the world in terms of crime rates.
That happens in Britain too. Their police recently shot and killed an innocent south american student and is that a good reason for other countries to say Britain is dangerous?
The problem is that we have many people who would run havok on just one or two incidents based on their private political agendas. They simply pretend that when their political party comes to power every crime in the country will go to “zero” overnight.
Only if others are naive enough to believe them!