Sri Lanka Government Protests Over Screening of ‘My Daughter the Terrorist’

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 organizers of the film festival,” The release said.

Source: Government of Sri Lanka

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