The Government of Iceland has tendered an unqualified written apology to the Government of Sri Lanka for the unauthorized meeting of Bjarni Vestmann, Minister Counsellor of the Foreign Ministry of Iceland, with representatives of the LTTE, according to a press release issued by the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Washington.
The apology was tendered after Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, who is currently on an official visit to Washington DC, took up the issue with his counterpart Mrs. Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade of Iceland on Wednesday morning. The Minister strongly protested the action of Vestmann, and requested his immediate recall.
Foreign Minister Gísladóttir emphatically stated that the Government of Iceland had not authorized Vestmann to make any contact with the LTTE, which he has done much to their disappointment
The Iceland Foreign Minister noted the close relations between Sri Lanka and Iceland and hoped for the continuation of this relationship.
According to Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry sources, Vestmann had not gone through the proper channels. A spokesperson said that his visit was not approved by the Foreign Ministry.
The Sri Lankan Peace Secretariat too reacted sharply to the unauthorized visit of Vestmann to the Tigers Political and Administrative headquarters in Killinochchi. In reply to a question as to how Vestmann slipped passed the checkpoints, the Peace Secretariat has said that vehicles of established agencies like SLMM are not checked. But it has recommended to the Ministry of Defence that in future all vehicles and individuals traveling in them should be checked closely.
The Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM) headed by the Norwegians is now washing their hands off saying that the presence of S.P. Tamilselvan, the political head of head of the LTTE, was coincidental and the report that formal discussions took place was incorrect. At the last minute SLMM backed off from taking Vestmann to the Peace Secretariat. SLMM told the Peace Secretariat that they had informed the Foreign Ministry about the incident and expressed their regrets.
(http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/7653)
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