Envoy ticked off over visit to rebel area

Sri Lanka summoned the head of Unicef operations here and expressed Colombo’s “concern” over his visit to rebel-held territory in the island’s north, the foreign ministry said.

Philippe Duamelle of the United Nations Children’s Fund was told that his visit to the Tiger guerrilla political capital of Kilinochchi was unacceptable to the government, the ministry said.

“Mr Philippe Duamelle ... was called in to the ministry of Foreign Affairs today to express concern over his recent visit to Kilinochchi and his meeting with LTTE (Tamil Tiger) leaders,” the statement said.

It quoted Duamelle as saying that he was new in the job and was unaware of foreign ministry guidelines, but had cleared his visit with the defence ministry. There was no immediate comment from Unicef.

Sri Lanka does not allow journalists free access to rebel-held areas of the island’s north and is also opposed to top-level diplomats holding talks with the leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Last week, the government here hauled in the envoys of countries calling for UN human rights monitoring of the island’s increasingly dirty war with Tamil separatists.
Sri Lanka has categorically rejected calls for foreign monitoring of its human rights record despite toughening international criticism.

A truce between the government and the Tamil Tigers was brokered by Norway in 2002, but both sides in the long-running conflict have since returned to all-out war and have been accused of gross human rights violations.
Local and international rights groups have accused government forces and paramilitaries of thousands of disappearances and murders, a charge vehemently denied by the authorities.

The government insists it is working on a political package aimed at addressing the demands of ethnic Tamils, but at the same time says it wants to totally “eliminate” the LTTE and seize their mini-state in the north.