Sri Lankan officials claim Damilvany Gnanakumar may have been brainwashed by rebels
A British woman who has been helping to treat the sick and wounded who fled the fighting in Sri Lanka is to be questioned by security officials on the island who claim she may have been "brainwashed" to collaborate with the rebel Tamil Tigers.
Damilvany Gnanakumar shot to prominence after it was reported that she had been interned in a detention camp as the Sri Lankan army launched its final offensive. She had been working in temporary hospitals in the no-fire zone and during that time gave a number of interviews highlighting the full horrors of the conflict.
Several of the doctors in the camps are being held on suspicion of collaborating with the LTTE – the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Now it has emerged Gnanakumar faces questioning from the authorities. "These people should not have been there," said Rajiva Wijesinha, secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights in Sri Lanka. "We need to question them as to what they have been doing."
In the Guardian, Gnanakumar denied being motivated by political views. "I don’t care about the government, I don’t care about the LTTE, my concern is the civilians," she said.
The Sri Lankan government said Gnanakumar had visited the country on a tourist visa in February 2008. "Her position should be investigated at least for violation of immigration laws and possible involvement with LTTE," Wijesinha said.
Gnanakumar called her family in Essex on 19 May to plead for help, but the line went dead in the middle of the call. The British High Commission in Colombo took up her case on 23 May and she could be released within days, once she has been questioned.
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