David Miliband and Gordon Brown meet delegates at London conference of Global Tamil Forum
The diplomatic rift between London and Colombo has widened after Gordon Brown and David Miliband met delegates from a new worldwide Tamil union despite "strong protests" from the Sri Lankan government.
Miliband, the foreign secretary, used his address to the inaugural conference of the Global Tamil Forum at the Commons yesterday to urge the Sri Lankan government to embark on a "genuinely inclusive political process".
He also repeated calls for an investigation into allegations that both the Sri Lankan state and the Tamil Tigers violated international humanitarian law during last year's fighting.
The British government's decision to engage with the GTF has provoked "deep concerns" in Sri Lanka, which claims the organisation is a front for the defeated Tamil Tigers (LTTE).
The British acting high commissioner in Colombo, Mark Gooding, was summoned before the island's foreign minister yesterday and urged to tell Miliband to cancel his address.
A spokesman for the Sri Lankan government said: "[Rohitha Bogollagama] … emphasised that foreign secretary Miliband, by participating at [the] GTF meeting in London, would unfortunately lend credibility to an organisation which is propagating the separatist agenda of the LTTE, and would be acting in a manner inimical to the national interest of Sri Lanka and its legitimate government."
However, not only did Miliband go ahead with the address but Brown also held a private meeting with a group of delegates in the Commons.
A Downing Street spokeswoman confirmed the meeting had taken place but declined to comment further.
A Foreign Office spokesman said Miliband's participation was part of the government's ongoing efforts to bring about peace in Sri Lanka.
"The GTF publicly states that they are committed to the principles of democracy and non-violence," he said.
"The UK will continue to engage with all Sri Lankan communities focused on achieving a lasting and equitable peace through non-violent means."
The already-strained relations between the two countries deteriorated further last November after the UK and Australia blocked Sri Lanka from hosting the next biennial commonwealth heads of government meeting in 2011 in protest at Colombo's military repression against the Tamil population.
Earlier this month the EU suspended preferential trade benefits to Sri Lanka over concerns about its human rights record.
In his address to the Commons conference, Miliband urged the newly-elected Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to use his mandate to bring about a political settlement between the island's Sinhalese majority and its Tamil minority and take lessons from how other divided countries had healed their differences.
"If history is buried, reconciliation never happens," he said. "That is why we continue to call as a government for a process to investigate serious allegations of violation of international humanitarian law by both sides in the conflict.
"If credible and independent, such efforts could make an important contribution to reconciliation between Sri Lanka's communities."
He also praised the Tamil diaspora for renouncing the violence and "countless atrocities" committed by the Tamil Tigers, adding: "The road ahead no doubt will be long and hard … but I think the founding commitment not just to a fully inclusive political process, but to support non-violence as the means to achieve it, is something that speaks to the deepest values of the Tamil people."
The UN estimates that around 7,000 people died in the final months of the fighting that culminated in the defeat of the Tamil Tigers.
More than 250,000 Tamils were interned in government-run camps, where around 100,000 remain. A further 11,000 are being held on suspicion of rebel links.
The conference also heard from a number of MPs, including Simon Hughes, Ed Davey, Keith Vaz and Virendra Sharma.
Davey, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, also called for an investigation into allegations of human rights violations and war crimes.
He warned the government in Colombo that it would be judged by the international community on its political and judicial reforms and the way it treated the media.
"The Sri Lankan government must reach out and recognise their mistakes from the past," he said. "We believe that what we believe are war crimes should be investigated."
The shadow foreign secretary, William Hague, who closed the conference, said "meaningful political reform and reconciliation should be an urgent priority" for the Sri Lankan government, and called for the release of the internally-displaced Tamils still held in camps.
The GTF, is led by Father SJ Emmanuel, a 75-year-old Catholic priest. He said the organisation was a democratic and non-violent organisation and adhered to "the principles of emancipation promoted by Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King".
It is dedicated to winning Tamil self-determination and finding and bringing to justice those responsible for "the genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity" that had been perpetrated against the Tamils.
A spokesman for the GTF said Colombo's reaction to its meetings with the British government was typical of the Sri Lankan state's attitude.
"It obviously shows that they are not serious about finding a peaceful solution," he added.
Kilde: guardian.co.uk
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