Colombo: Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka will continue despite boycotted by an award winning South African novelist over the country`s rights record, according to the organisers of the event Thursday.
Damon Galgut, a South African playwright and winner of
the 2003 Commonwealth Writers` Prize for `The Good Doctor`,
stayed away from the five-day festival despite arriving in the
country, they said.
"We are sorry to announce that Damon Galgut has
decided to lend his support to the ongoing international
campaign by rights activists to highlight shortfalls in human
rights here," said Shyam Selvadurai, an acclaimed Sri Lankan
writer and a Galle Literary Festival (GLF) official.
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and a
Sri Lankan right group had asked foreign writers to boycott
the festival from January 26-30 because of alleged rights
abuses in Sri Lanka.
Despite the international campaign, hundreds of local
and foreign book lovers are attending the event.
Last week, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and his
companion Booker Prize-winning author Kiran Desai had also
pulled out of the festival after the campaign was launched.
PTI
