Young girls trafficked

A government-appointed official in Sri Lanka has appealed to families in the north to protect under-age girls from sex traffickers.

Anoma Dissanayake of the National Child Protection Authority warned parents to be wary of strangers who offered to find their daughters jobs. Women from the north of Sri Lanka, which is in desperate need of development, were particularly vulnerable, she said. Earlier this week, nine women, including two under-age girls, were rescued from a brothel in the capital, Colombo. She says two of them were teenagers, while others include divorcees, widows and young mothers. One underage girl is a Tamil national from Mullaitivu and the other a Sinhala girl from Bandarawela, she said. Three suspects were arrested in connection with the abuse. The trafficking was busted when a teenage girl came to health facility to undergo family planning procedure. Mrs Dissanayake also says government is worried that trafficking within the country may rise as a result of surge in tourism.

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watch my TV show - War crimes film is 'horrific' - Dorothy Byrne - Channel4

A WAR crimes film due to air on TV tonight is so horrific a top telly chief has warned people against watching it.

The documentary about the Sri Lankan civil war features footage of executions, massacre victims and the corpses of women who appear to have been raped. Dorothy Byrne, head of Channel 4 news and current affairs, said: "I don't urge you to watch this programme. "It's horrific. The images will remain in your mind. There are probably many adults who shouldn't watch. "I would definitely say pregnant women shouldn't look at it. I would rather I'd never seen it." But she said bosses decided to screen Sri Lanka's Killing Fields to draw attention to war crimes by troops in 2009 in the fight against Tamil separatists. "The decision to show it at length was made only after serious and careful consideration." It will be screened at 11.05pm. WATCHDOG Ofcom is braced for a flood of complaints today after BBC2 showed a man dying in a suicide clinic last night. It received 191 complaints before Choosing To Die was broadcast.

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