Rajapaksa asks Ban to visit Sri Lanka

I / Colombo May 6, 2009, 14:54 IST

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has invited UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to visit the island to see for himself the situation in the camps where Tamil civilians displaced due to the ongoing war are lodged.Rajapaksa's invitation to Ban came during a telephonic conservation yesterday initiated by the latter amid concerns over the fate of an estimated 20,000 civilians trapped in the northern war zone.  "President asked Ban to visit the island to assess the situation at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps," an official statement said. 

 Rajapaksa told Ban that "he would then be able to make a better assessment of the conditions faced by the Tamil civilians still held hostage by the LTTE in a small stretch of the Civilian Safety Zone."  "There could also be a better understanding of the cooperation between the Government and the United Nations and its relief organisations and well as with Sri Lankan and foreign NGOs, in these temporary transit locations for the IDPs," the statement quoted Rajapaksa as saying to the UN chief.  

However, no date has been fixed for Ban's visit.  The Sri Lankan government had earlier invited UN officials and other diplomats for assessment missions.