No Independent Election Monitors Invited-Sri Lanka Foreign Minister

April 3rd, 2008

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama this morning confirmed to the Liberal Democratic Party Shadow Foreign Secretary Edward Davey MP that no independent election monitors have been invited to oversee the credibility and legitimacy of the Eastern ‘elections’ that the Government of Sri Lanka is planning to conduct during the month of May 2008.

Mr. Davey, we understand has said ‘credibility and legitimacy of any election depended on the presence of observers-be they from the EU or the Commonwealth’.

Mr. Bogollagama apparently agreed to take that message back to Colombo.

It is also worth noting that the Party in Government, which the Foreign Minister represents is contesting these ‘elections’ jointly with an armed paramilitary group called the Tamil Makkal Viduthali Pulikal (TMVP) which is widely blamed for various killings, abductions and human rights violations. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which currently holds the majority of the Tamil constituencies (22 seats) in the Sri Lankan Parliament is boycotting the so called ‘elections’.

At a separate event two days ago at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, Mr. Bogollagama was asked by Richard Beeston, Foreign Editor of The Times, why the authorities were not allowing foreign correspondents to travel to Sri Lanka, if as the minister had insisted Colombo wanted to engage with the international community and hold free and transparent elections. The minister had stated that apart from two districts, Mullaitivu and Kilinochi, foreign media were allowed to visit other areas of Sri Lanka. Mr. Beeston said that this was not the experience of The Times, which had had several visas applications blocked by the authorities. Other Western media had reported similar experiences.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister has also told Mr. Davey that the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) that was signed by the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2002 was flawed and that it favoured the LTTE.

Many distinguished persons and foreign governments have said that if the internationally sponsored CFA was flawed in any form, then a responsible government would re-negotiate the agreement rather than unilaterally abrogating from it. The Government of Sri Lanka was condemned by various Governments such as the US, UK, European Union and UN Secretary General for abrogating from the CFA unilaterally, in January 2008. On 04/01/2008 UK Foreign Minister responsible for Africa, Asia and the United Nations Lord Malloch Brown commenting on the unilateral abrogation of the CFA by the Government of Sri Lanka said that ‘There can be no military solution to the conflict. It is vital now that the Government lives up to its commitment to address the grievances of Tamil people’

[This is the text of a press release issued by the British Tamils Forum on Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama’s visit to Britain]

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