(April 15, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, has strongly condemned the LTTE massacre of civilians in a remote village in Buttala yesterday. Denouncing the cold blooded killings of 8 villagers, including 3 women and 2 children, the British Foreign Secretary in a telephone conversation with Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama today (13th April 2009), requested the latter to convey his condolences to the bereaved families.
The British Minister, speaking further, welcomed the Government of Sri Lanka’s announcement of a pause in hostilities for the period of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. Minister Bogollagama, while appreciating his British counterpart’s remarks, emphasized that the purpose of the pause was to enable the civilians to free themselves from the clutches of the LTTE, which has entrapped over 60,000 civilians as hostages in the No-Fire Zone. The Foreign Minister also stated that over 65,000 civilians have already crossed over to the cleared areas. Despite this goodwill humanitarian gesture by the Government, the LTTE is yet to reciprocate positively. The reaction from the LTTE so far has been the massacre of 8 innocent civilians in a remote hamlet in Buttala, in the Moneragala district and the premeditated attack on the Sri Lanka Embassy in Oslo, causing extensive damage to its property, both incidents taking place yesterday, within a few hours of the announcement of the President’s directive to the armed forces to restrict their operations to those of a defensive nature during the festive period.
The British Foreign Secretary, while condemning the brutality of the LTTE, requested the Government of Sri Lanka to consider a longer period of the pause to enable the civilians to move out of the LTTE held areas. Foreign Minister Bogollagama emphasized that a longer pause was not possible because the LTTE has so far failed to demonstrate any genuine goodwill on its part in allowing the civilians to have free movement and there was concern that the LTTE would continue to consolidate its fortification of the No-Fire Zone. In this context, he urged the United Kingdom and the international community to bring adequate pressure on the LTTE to free the civilians.
The Foreign Minister pointed out that the way forward lies for the LTTE to heed the call by the international community to immediately lay down its weapons and surrender, and renounce violence and terrorism permanently, which would facilitate it to enter the democratic political process. Foreign Secretary Miliband emphasized the British Government’s intention to remain engaged with Sri Lanka through the services of a special envoy at an appropriate time. Minister Bogollagama informed that the current stand of the Government of Sri Lanka remains unchanged in not recognizing the appointment of a special envoy by Britain.
Minister Bogollagama emphasized Sri Lanka’s readiness to remain engaged on matters of mutual interest, and in this context, the two Ministers agreed to maintain their dialogue.-Sri Lanka Guardian
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Miliband's job is as to the individual situation either appealing to terrorists, threatening sovereign SL govt. or condemning blindly with out ascertaing the prudent action in the long run, based on the big picture.Unfortunately British society is in the brink of collapse, thanks to the terror supporters ruling the streets, tube stations in London, giving bad impressions to young British childen as normalcy & most critically Miliband is the WEAKEST LINK IN THE HISTORY OF BRITISH FOREIGN POLICY.God save not only QUEEN but also British younger generations.
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