Economic development zone ends the VOA saga in Sri Lanka
An economic and tourism development zone is to come up at the 410 acre-Voice of America (VOA) broadcasting facility site at Iranawila, which caused a major local and international problem for Sri Lanka during the 1990s, official sources revealed.
The US Information Agency has agreed to return the land to the present government even before the expiry date of the lease agreement, a memorandum submitted by the Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs said. An environmental friendly economic development programme is to be created at the Iranwila VOA site surrounding a natural environmental system abound with mangroves and biodiversity in a natural ecology resource system.
This recommendation was made by a group of experts assigned by the National Planning Department and Tourism Development Authority after conducting a field inspection at the site on a request of the Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs. The VOA broadcasting facility site is located 500 metres away from the Iranawila beach at Mahawewa divisional secretariat area in the Puttalam District. Fisher families are living in thatched huts in the village surrounded by the sea on one side and a lagoon on the other. Much of the area in and around Iranawila has been declared a security zone after the construction of the VOA broadcasting station barring local fishermen access to the lagoon to make their living.
In 1951, the US Government and the Government of Ceylon entered into an agreement to construct a civilian broadcasting facility in this small fishing village and thereafter revised it in 1971 and 1976 to carry VOA programming over Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) . In 1991 a plan to build a US $40 million five-star hotel in this tranquil spot on Sri Lanka’s north-west coast was thwarted by the people in the area. In 1993, the US began building the $ 60 million VOA facility in this small fishing village after the new agreement was signed in December 1983 and revised it in 1991.
In October 1994, villagers formed the Iranawila People’s Solidarity Forum (IPSF) and continued their protests against the construction work citing environmental degradation forcing the authorities to suspend the project. One villager was shot dead by the police when they opened fire to disperse a protest demonstration during the same year. Despite protests from villagers and Indian authorities who contended, that the station might be used as a covert listening post in South Asia, the VOA began its transmission in 1994 with seven shortwave broadcast transmitters and sixteen high-gain curtain antennas. Its signal is picked up in regions as far as Africa, Central and Southeast Asia.