Poor Viraj Mendis! He's just been in the news because he can't get back into Blighty!
Remember him? He was given sanctuary in a Manchester Church after he claimed he'd be killed if he went back to his native Sri Lanka. Anyway, the priest who harboured him, Rev. John Methuen, has sadly died. VM wanted to go to the funeral, but it turns out the 'authorities' won't allow him to do so.
Bit of a difference to 1989, when he didn't want to go back to Sri Lanka, but HAD to! Boy, doesn't he look happy!! I was there to cover his arrival 'home', and shot him at the airport then at this press conference with Rev. Methuen. It was so hot there I remember drying my film by simply holding it up to the sunlight, and then I had to 'wire' it back using the big old wire machine of AFP. Made the front of the Independent if I remember rightly.
Oh, and guess what...nobody tried to kill him !
No comments:
Post a Comment