“Jaffna library, a bridge between South and North” says LK

[September 30, 2003 - 10.15 GMT]

Senior adviser to President Kumaratunga on foreign affairs, Lakshman Kadirgamar yesterday handed over a collection of Tamil manuscripts to the new US ambassador in Colombo Jeffery Lunstead.

“Prior to his departure, Ambassador Ashley Wills gave me this priceless collection of manuscripts and old Tamil literature from the US Congress library,” Kadirgamar said adding the Jaffna library would become a bridge between the people of the North and the people of the South in our island. Ambassador Lunstead said that Sri Lanka should continue to rebuild itself.

The manuscripts in microfiche and microfilms would soon be gifted to the Jaffna Library. Once acclaimed as the finest in Asia, the Jaffna library was burned down by politically motivated goons in 1981. Reconstruction work commenced in 1998 and the library was scheduled to reopen January this year but was postponed indefinitely due to LTTE objections.

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Last Updated Date: September 30, 2003  -10.15 GMT.