Sri Lankan accused of trying to sell granddaughters

BATAPOLA, Sri Lanka - Police have arrested a 63-year-old Sri Lankan man on charges of trying to sell his two young granddaughters after their home was destroyed and their mother killed by the Asian tsunami - a case that highlights the vulnerability of children after the disaster.

The United Nations and international aid agencies have expressed concern that child traffickers are exploiting the chaos in countries hit hardest by the tsunami, and trying to abduct and then sell orphans into forced labor or the sex trade.

"There is definitely a danger. The opportunity is there. The situation will attract (traffickers)," said Udaya de Silva, a police inspector in charge of crimes against women and children in Colombo.

The arrest Monday of A.H. Somadasa at a relief camp in the southern village of Batapola was the first official case since the tsunami of child trafficking in Sri Lanka, which has a history of pedophiles and sex tourism.

In Indonesia, where there have been confirmed cases of attempted child trafficking, the concerns are serious enough that the government has placed restrictions on youngsters leaving the country, ordered police to be on the lookout for trafficking and posted guards in refugee camps.

Somadasa was brought before a magistrate Tuesday in the coastal town of Balapitiya and released on bail, police Inspector W.D.T. Wijesena said. The two girls, age 7 and 9, were released into the custody of their father.

The suspect's lawyer, Sumith Dhammika de Silva, insisted his client was innocent, saying there was no evidence Somadasa tried to sell the girls. He said two foreigners had come to the shelter offering to help the family but apparently had secret intentions of buying the children.

At a temporary relief camp at a Buddhist temple, Somadasa's relatives backed his claims of innocence, saying two men, one English and another Indian, had visited the camp several times, asking about orphans and offering to aid the family.

The men asked about Somadasa's two grandchildren after hearing their mother died in the tsunami, and took pictures of the girls with their grandfather, said the girls' aunt, A.H. Dammi Pushpakanthi.

"They told me they wanted to come help children with no father or mother," she said, adding the men asked for the girls' names and addresses.

"They never said anything about selling the children. My father would never sell the children. He had seven girls, and he never sold us."

The two men - whom she described as a heavyset Englishman named John and a bald Indian who called himself Ranjev - had said they were staying at a hotel in nearby Bentota, Pushpakanthi said.

"He asked me, 'Can you care for the two babies?' I said they are my sister's children. They are like my children," she said.