Journalists deported

FOUR Danish journalists who arrived to visit deportee Chitra Rajendran, 18,= were themselves deported from Sri Lanka on 13= November.

Asylum-seeker Chitra, deported from Denmark was arrested= in Colombo on 3 November. The journalists who met her at the Dehiwela= police station were detained by police under Emergency regulations at a= hotel in Mt Lavinia under heavy security before deportation.

Police= in Colombo said that she had been arrested on a tip-off from Interpol that= she was a fund-raiser for the LTTE in Denmark. Chitra has denied the= allegations. Media minister Dharmasiri Senanayake says the Danish= journalists were a security risk, as they had made false declarations on= arrival in Sri Lanka.

Virakesari newspaper journalist Rasiah= Selvarajah who wrote about the deportation of Chitra was summoned by police= and questioned about his information sources. Sri Lanka Broadcasting= Corporation journalist Sandung Jayasekera suspected of links with the= Danish journalists was arrested in mid-November. Chitra=92s relatives= Rajmohan and his father who provided her accommodation in Colombo have also= been detained.

The police brought Chitra=92s sister Vasanthy and her= husband by plane from Jaffna to care for her after the Mt Lavinia= magistrate ordered her release on 21 November. Both have complained to the= lawyers that they were handcuffed and treated like criminals.

Chitra= says she has no identity documents and fears she may be arrested again.= Meanwhile reports say Denmark is keen to negotiate an agreement with Sri= Lanka for the deportation of rejected asylum-seekers.
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