Des Browne makes first visit to Sri Lanka

(May 04, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Des Browne, the former Defence Secretary, arrives in Sri Lanka today on his first visit since its government rejected his appointment as special representative to the Indian Ocean island in February, the London Times website said.

A report filed by Jeremy Page, the newspaper’s South Asia Correspondent, said:

Sri Lanka has refused to allow Mr Browne to visit in his new role to press international calls for a ceasefire with the Tamil Tiger rebels and for aid agencies to be given access to the 50,000 civilians the United Nations estimates are still on the frontline.

It has permitted Mr Browne to visit as part of a cross-party British parliamentary delegation to meet Sri Lankan officials and visit camps where an estimated 170,000 civilians, mostly ethnic Tamils, are being held and screened after fleeing the fighting. The other members of the delegation, which will be in Sri Lanka for two days, are John Bercow (C); Malcolm Bruce (Lib Dem); Edward McGrady (SDLP), and Mohammed Sarwar (Lab).

Relations between Britain and Sri Lanka have soured dramatically since Downing Street appointed Mr Browne and began to express concerns in public about civilians stuck on, or fleeing, the front line.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, returned empty-handed from Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, last week after a joint mission with Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, to appeal for a ceasefire.

Mr Miliband also had a heated exchange with Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Defence Secretary, who is also the President’s brother, over reports that the army was still shelling civilians on the front line.

-Sri Lanka Guardian