Lankans shocked at the fall of their most honoured guest

“If the quotes attributed to him are accurate, all I can say is I am shocked the government must treat it as a confession and initiate a legal process against him to see if he has indeed violated the laws of this country,” said Lasantha Wickremetunga, editor of the weekly Sunday Leder which has been running a campaign against peadophilia.

Sri Lanka, which has been battling the scourge of paedophile tourists for several years, enacted a tough law in 1995 that specifies a minimum penalty of seven years and a maximum of 20 years for child abuseincluding the specific crime of paedophilia. The new law also specifies that anyone under 16 years was child.

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga announced last year that she was taking a personal interest in the government campaign against paedophiles and formed a task force to recommend measures to curb the activities of “boy men”. The government also recently set up a Child Protection Authority to monitor the implementation of the law against sexual offenders.

Clarke, who has lived in this country for about 40 years, was the first foreigner to be accorded a special tax-free status, and was also named the chancellor of a university here. A high-profile government institute of science and technology has been named after him.

In 1975, the government of India, in recognition of his services to science, gifted him a satellite dish antenna, four years before Sri Lanka got television. Last year, Clarke’s latest book 3001: A Space Odyssey was released simultaneously in the UK and SriLanka.

Lanka’s pride on Clarke’s knighthood has quickly evaporated at his admission. Said Wickremetunga: “The government must now review the special status accorded to him here.” Others expressed more outrage.

“It’s a shame to have him as a chancellor of a university. Now it seems that Arthur Clarke not only pioneered the concept of geo-stationary satellites but also the abuse of children,” said Nalin de Silva, a professor in Colombo University and the head of a Sinhala-Buddhist ultra-nationalist organisation.

Threatening to launch a campaign for the immediate deportation of Clarke, de Silva said: “He has not brought any recognition to Sri Lanka. He only projected the country as a paradise for paedophiles.”

Clarke’s inclination for sex with children is the country’s best-known secret and so far, not only the government, but also non-governmental organisations campaigning against paedophilia, have turned a blind eye to it. On Sunday, after news of the science fiction writer’s bland confessionspread, an organisation spearheading the campaign lamented that it was helpless to bring “powerful” individuals to book.

“Whatever we have known by rumour, we definitely did not have the resources to tackle. We do not have the battering ram to take on an internationally reputed figure, who is respected by our government, a best-selling writer… we know our limitations. I cannot set our volunteers against such powerful people, mere midgets against such giants,” admitted Maureen Senevirane, local co-ordinator of Protection of Environment and Children Everywhere (PEACE).

Sri Lanka is reported to have about 28,000 under-age prostitutes, mostly boys and has become a destination for male western tourists seeking sex with male children. So far, only one person, a Belgian national, has been convicted of the crime, but under the old law, he received two years rigorous imprisonment.

Last year, despite the new tough law, police investigators preferred to deport a Swiss national rather than charge him here,apprehending that he might use his powerful connections in the Sri Lankan establishment to get away.

The 52-year-old businessman had been living here for over 15 years and had set up an extensive network of pimps and boy prostitutes for himself at a palatial palace.