Australian, New Zealand legislators questioned in Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan immigration officers on Sunday detained and questioned two opposition parliamentarians from Australian and New Zealand for allegedly violating immigration laws. Immigration officers seized the passports of the two legislators as they prepared to hold a press conference at the office of a political party, the Tamil National Alliance. Australian Senator Lee Rhiannon and New Zealand Greens member of parliament (MP) Jan Logie had visited the northern Jaffna town on a fact finding mission and were about to brief the media on their findings when they were detained. Immigration officers who attempted to record statements from the two MPs told Xinhua the MPs had refused to give statements. After several hours they were released as they had promised to return to their native countries as scheduled. Meanwhile, the Australian High Commission in Colombo said Senator Lee Rhiannon, who was detained and questioned by immigration authorities at the hotel she was staying in Colombo, had not sought consular support from the High Commission. A spokesman at the High Commission said the mission was aware that she was questioned by Sri Lankan authorities over an alleged breach of visa regulations. The spokesman said the High Commission was in touch with the senator but she did not seek consular support. In a press release issued earlier, Senator Rhiannon and New Zealand MP Jan Logie said they had found that the ongoing abuses of human and legal rights are so serious that the Commonwealth meeting scheduled for Colombo should not proceed and that the Sri Lanka government should not be given the chair of the Commonwealth for the next two years.