Indian Visa issue hampers Pamuk's GLF participation - Organisers

Nobel Literature prize winner Orhan Pamuk and Kiran Desai will not be attending the Galle Literary Festival (GLF) due to Indian Re-entry visa restrictions, the festival organisers said yesterday.

"We have been trying to resolve the issue with the Indian Immigration Authorities for the last three weeks but it has just not been possible. Nobody is sadder than Mr.Pamuk and Miss Desai," the organizers said in a statement posted on the festival's website.

Pamuk in an e-mail to the organisers said, "I am very sorry for and frustrated about this decision...I looked forward to seeing the beauties of Sri Lanka very much." Miss Desai in a separate e-mail said, "Nobody could be sadder than me. I love Sri Lanka and had a super time the last time I was in Galle."

The Literary Festival will continue as scheduled from Wednesday 26th January.

The notification by Pamuk preceded by more than two weeks the call to foreign writers by Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy and a few other writers, and by Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), to keep away from the GLF due to alleged Freedom of Expression issues in Sri Lanka , and therefore, has no relation to this call, a spokesman for the Presidential Secretariat said.

Any attempts to link the non-participation of Orhan Pamuk at the GLF to an alleged situation about Freedom of Expression in Sri Lanka is therefore wholly unfounded, and only serves the agenda of those seeking to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka abroad, he said. Festival founder Geoffrey Dobbs said: "We are looking forward to welcoming writers and festival goers, to engage in debate, conversation and to raise important issues which reflect a post conflict Sri Lanka, the Festival is one of the few forums in the country which actively promote lively and spirited discussions, we want this to continue with this tradition and we will always welcome any writers and journalists to use the festival as a platform to air these issues.

We are pleased to announce that Louis de Bernieres has rescheduled his visit to coincide with the main Festival." On Friday, Hemali Sodhi of Penguin's publisher in India told AFP the couple would not "be attending the Galle festival."