UN officials barred from uncleared areas

SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka said yesterday it would not allow the United Nation’s human rights envoy to visit uncleared areas in the north.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, is due in Sri Lanka next week while the UN’s top torture investigator, Manfred Novak, is already in the country.

But Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said “neither Novak or Madam Louise Arbour can visit Kilinochchi,”..

The minister said the Tigers could use the visit for propaganda and that security was a concern.

“Visiting foreign dignitaries are free to travel to other parts of the country to get a first-hand idea of what’s happening on the ground,” Samarasinghe told reporters.

AFP