UK Under-Secretary to Government: Allow NGOs to Help IDPs
The Head of the UK Diplomatic Service, Permanent Under-Secretary Sir Peter Ricketts, who arrived in Sri Lanka on March 10, has called on the government to allow humanitarian organizations to play a full role in the resettlement of IDPs.
Sir Peter had expressed the UK’s willingness to support Sri Lanka to restore full freedom of movement to all IDPs, to complete the resettlement process and to help civilians rebuild their lives. Sir Peter made this observation during a meeting with Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama.
In his discussion with Bogollogama, Sir Peter had welcomed the progress made towards releasing IDPs from the camps in Vavuniya and resettling them in their homes.
Sir Peter and the Foreign Minister had also discussed efforts to reach a political solution to the causes of the recent conflict. He had commented that the end of the war and the recent strong mandate given to President Mahinda Rajapaksa had opened up an historic opportunity to make significant progress towards this goal.
He added that the upcoming parliamentary elections were an important part of political efforts to resolve the conflict, and that the UK supported the efforts of the Election Commissioner to ensure a free and fair poll.
On the UK Foreign Secretary’s recent participation in a Global Tamil Forum (GTF) conference in London, Sir Peter had explained that Foreign and Commonwealth Office ministers and officials regularly engage with expatriate Sri Lankans from all communities to encourage them to support peaceful efforts to achieve peace in Sri Lanka.
He stated that during his speech the Foreign Secretary had urged GTF members to maintain their commitment to peaceful methods and to support domestic attempts within Sri Lanka to achieve a political solution.
During his visit Sir Peter met with the Foreign Minister, government officials, civil society groups, humanitarian agencies and diplomats.
Related posts:
- Minister: Government Will Resettle IDPs in 180 Days Minister Rishard Bathiudeen told Parliament today that the government will meet the 180 day deadline to resettle the IDPs....
- IDPS to Be Resettled in Kilinochchi Next Week Minister of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Rishard Bathiudeen said the government was planning to begin resettling IDPs in the Kilinochchi area next week. Bathiudeen...
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So the British Masters are there to lecture us on morality?
Whatever white man does in the world is “legitimate”, just get lost.
Please note that “suddas” are a minority in the world.
You have called yourself as “psycho” correctly. How do you live without the help of “West”. Remember your Minister is going to beg for Gplus. Very soon you all will loose jobs and then you will know better
You better get rid of your slave mentality towards your western masters and try to stand on your own leg. We can live without West even if you can’t. GSP+ is not something we need but it is handy to have and therefore it is worth trying. However if we lose GSP+ it is not the end of the world for us.
Now you have a new master – China.
Your new master will not give you any aid or grants. All loans will come with strings attached.
Very sooon your loving MR will sell all Lanka’s assets to this new master. Wish you all the best, and start learning chinese.
MR decimated your friend Praba and his thugs without the west.
It is correct to say Sri Lankan politics has been suffering from deep psycho disorders and hence psychological experts and psychatrists should help the politicians and their fellow travellers unwind their problems in order to arrive at sensible solutions rather than create more psycho-somatic disorders to the rest of society.
There is no other country that is being so dictated to by the British than Sri Lanka. Is this beccause the Sri Lankans still have the Master/Servant mentality when it comes to the British? Anything white goes mentality should not be prevalent anymore in the country. I believe this ideology is around because Sri Lanka’s revenue is based on Tourism. We bend backwards and forwards to make the white tourist happy. This is carried over to all areas of governance as well. I believe Mahinda is setting a precedence by trying not to acknowledge all the demands of servitude by the British on our country. Our people should unite and rise against the whites, instead of cowing down to their demands. I believe most of the INGO’s should be banned from SL. Most of the female INGO’s have got themselves Sri Lankan boy toys and do not want to leave Sri Lanka. Example Rebecca Cohn. Her boy toy is a Sri Lankan. All these women do is party with the Sri Lankan boys. Sri Lankan culture and morality has gone down to the gutters because of western influence. I am happy to see that the government is planning on setting up new laws to govern INGO’s and NGO’s. This is an abosolute necessity, as most of this people are just having a life long vacation in SL. Not only are they vacationing in SL, they are also meddling in SL’s internal politics. If these people were busy doing what they are supposed to do, they would not have time to interfere in SL politics.
Ask Sir Peter Ricketts to stay at home and sort the problems in the UK, there are many things that the MI5 and MI6 get upto, which would shock the world if became aware of.
“There is no other country that is being so dictated to by the British than Sri Lanka. Is this beccause the Sri Lankans still have the Master/Servant mentality when it comes to the British?”
No. Walking into countries uninvited with blazing canon balls was the order of the day when we were running around with ‘amudaes’. Now civilised, if one has any conscience one will understand that for justice to prevail, what one take unlawfully must be returned.
The state of Israel was snatched from the Israelites by invading forces. But it was reinstated and returned. East Germany was invaded and was given back to the Germans. The Portuguese walked into Ceylon in 1505 invading the Sinhalese Nation. 96 years later, in 1601 they walked into Tamil Nation, captured the Tamil King Cangily, took him to Goa and hanged him. In today’s term Portuguese would have been taken to The Hague for this crime.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffna_kingdom
Of course, our Sinhalese friends will either deny it or would be ignorant of it. If one dares to write about it, he is dead meat. Fortunately some have but they are dead now.
Indigenous Tamil people have lived for more than 2,500 years in the northern and eastern parts of present-day Sri Lanka (north-east), known as the Tamil hereditary area. In pre-colonial days there was the Tamil Kingdom in the north-east (Jaffna) and two Sinhalese kingdoms in the south, called Kotte and Kandy. Drawings and maps from the time of the Greek explorer Ptolemy, and later from the period when the British came to the island, show how the areas of the Tamils and the Sinhalese were recorded separately from antiquity. Emerson, Tennent J (1859) Ceylon, Volume 2 (London: Longman Press
Sinhalese ethnologist Paul Peiris describes the five Saivaite shrines on the four cardinal points of the compass, located on the shoreline of Ceylon and predating the birth of Buddha, as evidence of the ancient Tamil habitation of the island. Tamil Nation(1995)
May be, Britain is conscious of the fact that the wrong done to the Tamil Nation by amalgamating the Sinhala and Tamil Nation by way of the Captain Colebrooke Commission must be rectified.
..British are responsible for this mess..it is they who have amalgamated
Tamil and Sinhala lands for their own purpose..should they have divide this country and gave independence there is no reson for arms struggle..so let the British solve this…
No need to get too heated about Sir Peter, UK Foreign Secretary et el. They too have an election round the corner – so it is time to posture.
Note the key word – NGOs. Sir Peter is not offering UK government’s money (they don’t have any – bankrupt!!!). Some NGOs and the UN reps are already very much active in the IDP resettlement process. So what is new, Sir Peter??
Maybe Sir Peter is speaking on behalf of the Global Tamil Forum; the Tamil Diaspora may be offering the money and the INGOs for managing the IDP resettlement process.
The International monitors of the 2002 Cease Fire Agreement looked the other way when the LTTE was arming to its teeth with the help of some NGOs and INGOs, and the money and weapons coming from the Tamil Diaspora. Given this recent history, who can blame the Sri Lankan Government if it is dubious about this offer of INGO/NGO involvement – coming hot on the heels of Miliband’s ‘love-in’ with the GTF?
Sir Peter should take a message back to the GTF: “Promote reconciliation and co-existence and not separatism in Sri Lanka. Then the people in Sri Lanka will welcome GTF’s involvement in any peaceful process in Sri Lanka.”
Meanwhile, the peace loving Tamils in the Diaspora should do their own thing. Please materially help their kith and kin in these difficult times; and also contribute ideas on how people of all races and religions could best co-exist in one country; and in any part of that country; without racially based demarcations. Sir Peter should know that this is the case in some parts of Sri Lanka today.
…mmmmm..when British give money and Aids it is sweet..but their advice is bitter…still why the hell you bent on promoting tea and tourism in Britain…????
why not promote this in Iran..Libya…Russia..Mayanmar…Somalia…China::???
..soon Sri Lanka will compell to support China in international issues at UN AND OTHER PLACES…whether it is good or bad….Soon India will be like a pakir with loin cloth in international arena..
The whole gripe against INGOs is that they report the truth of what is really happening in sri lanka,to their principals.
How many super rich “devout” buddhist philanthropists support programs to help the poorest of the poor? They are all amassing tons of ‘merit’ by ‘goldplating’ buddhism, carrying relics, becoming ‘nilames’ of temples, conducting bodhi poojas & all-night pirith ceremonies.The army is amassing ‘merit’ by planting buddha statues.
There are no beggers in western countries with large per capita incomes, and most citizens donate small amounts to charity each month and these donations support their NGOs in third world countries.
Their politicians listen to grievances, dissatisfaction and problems of all communities equally – that is a part of real democracy.
Excellent post. Just stumbled across an excellent site with UK government documents on it – http://www.officialdocumentwatch.com is a really well made site and them seem to be very up to date – always posting the latest UK government documents released to the public. Worth a look.
good day, im in working at Gtech. My mom is indian and my dad is Chinese so I have a bit of a mixed heritage even if i might not act that way. I will be playing over in goa india to meet my mom