Paul Harris to leave today
[November 8, 2002  - 8.15 GMT]

“I am leaving this afternoon,” Paul Harris, Colombo correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph and a special contributor on Global Terrorism for Jane’s Intelligence Review told the PRIU this morning.

The Foreign Ministry has taken a decision not to extend the visa of the journalist.

Harris said that the Foreign Ministry had informed him that his application for the extension of his one-year work visa due to expire at midnight Friday, had been rejected because he was a threat to national security.

Presidential spokesman Harim Peiris said that the President was not aware as to why the Foreign Ministry had refused to extend the visa of Mr. Harris and said that it was not correct to refuse a visa for a journalist from a friendly country, who had done no wrong.

In a statement to the Media Peiris said, “The President’s Office recalls that Mr. Harris had accurately at the beginning of this year predicted certain developments with regards the LTTE in the peace process, specially the use of school children and civilians to storm security forces camps.”

“Freedom of expression and the right of dissent are bedrock requirements for a democratic and free society and… we cannot have peace in the North and East at the expense of democracy, an erosion of which was a contributory factor in the ethnic conflict and the strengthening of which would enhance the prospects for a durable and lasting peace,” the spokesman added.

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Last Updated Date: November 08, 2002  - 8.15 GMT.