Customs releases detained book

The book authored by Dr. Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, Principal Researcher of the Point Pedro Institute of Development has been released following media exposure, complaints made by the author to the Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP), as well as to the Director General of Sri Lanka Customs, stating his intention of pursuing legal action if the book was not released.

“I faxed the Director General on Monday (24.03.08) and on Monday afternoon the SCOPP informed me that the book had been released,” Dr. Sarvananthan said.

The book, “Economy of conflict regions in Sri Lanka: from Embargo to Repression,” was detained by Customs at the Postal headquarters to check for any “anti-government” material. However, no reasons for the detention of the book were given.

A similarly detained book by academic Dr. Rohan Samarajiva “ICT infrastructure in emerging Asia, Policy and Regulatory roadblocks” has however not been released. (TR)