Panicky reactions to security

One of the unfortunate fallouts from the recent LTTE terror attack on the Katunayaka air base and the Bandaranaike International Airport is a panic-button reaction by prominent Western countries to warn their citizens against travelling to Sri Lanka. The assumption behind these directives is that Sri Lanka is too unsafe for visit and travel by tourists given the volatile security situation here.

It goes without saying that these reactions by the Western authorities would have a depressing impact on tourist arrivals thereby affecting seriously the tourist and leisure industries. This poses problems for a country looking forward to a revival in the tourist industry.

The concern on the part of these Western governments has to be appreciated, for, Sri Lanka is in the middle of a costly war stoked by intransigent terrorists, but there is certainly no justification for exaggerated reactions to the security situation here. Very few major Western countries are strangers to terror attacks, whether they occur in nerve centres of a state, such as airports, or outside. The scourge of terror, in other words, has pervasive presence. Why, then, give in to extreme reactions on hearing of terror attacks in a foreign country which is at war? Is Great Britain, for instance, or the US immune from terror attacks?

Given the proliferation of socio-economic problems worldwide political terror may pose a challenge to most countries of the world system. However, life has to go on and the wheels of tourism have to be kept humming. Every precaution should be taken against terror attacks in sensitive locations but tourist traffic should be encouraged. In fact during the recent terror attack on the BIA, no civilians were grievously hurt. Foreign tourists were safe and sound. Some of them were even given refuge by people living in the vicinity of the airport.

Those who read our front page story yesterday on airport security would have obtained first-hand information on the measures being taken by the Government to tighten security at the BIA. These are elaborate precautionary measures which would ensure the safety of human life at the airport. What reason is there for panic-button reactions when the Government is proving exceedingly sensitive to the country's security needs?

We call on the West to take full cognisance of these measures and encourage the flow of tourist traffic to Sri Lanka. It is best that they keep in constant touch with the Lankan authorities on the efforts being made to upgrade security in the country's nerve centres.

The Lankan authorities too should do everything possible to efface the negative image being attached to the country in the wake of these security crises. The Foreign Ministry and the Tourist Board, for instance, can contribute much towards disabusing the minds of the Western publics and their governments on these questions. These measures are urgently required because the panic seems to be spreading even to the shipping sector, where a "war risk surcharge" is apparently being imposed on vessels heading here. It is clear that damage-control exercises need to be undertaken by us.

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