Sri Lanka's militaristic government said last week it had hauled in the envoys of countries calling for UN human rights monitoring of the island's dirty war against the Tamil Tigers, AFP reported.
The ambassadors of the United States, the European Union, France, Korea and Sweden were summoned for a dressing down by foreign ministry secretary Palitha Kohona, AFP quoted the ministry as saying.
Diplomats from Canada and the Netherlands were also to be summoned Friday, the ministry said, adding a complaint over remarks made at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this week will be forwarded to New Zealand's Delhi-based envoy.
The foreign ministry in Colombo said it had conveyed its "serious concern" that Sri Lanka, which has categorically rejected the presence of foreign monitors, was being subjected to escalating international criticism.
Colombo also expressed its "deep displeasure" to Britain's high commissioner to Sri Lanka, Dominic Chilcott, over comments interpreted as being sympathetic to the Tamil demand for independence.
The foreign ministry "drew attention to the high commissioner's comment, 'I am not saying that the political aspiration for Eelam (separate Tamil state) is illegitimate' and expressed the government's deep concern," the statement said.
"At a time when the painstaking process of evolving a negotiated political settlement was under way, such sentiments would have a negative impact and send confusing signals," the Sri Lankan foreign ministry said.
“We would tell the British high commissioner not to interfere in the internal affairs of our country,” IANS quoted Cabinet Minister and Chief Government Whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle as saying before the meeting.
'Chilcott still thinks that Sri Lanka is a colony of Britain,' said Fernandopulle.
Giving a hint of what might happen if Chilcott continued to do what he had done, Fernandopulle said that in the late 1980s, Sri Lanka had expelled British High Commissioner David Gladstone for overstepping his brief.
Gladstone had entered a polling station at Dikwella and publicly complained about the malpractices taking place there.
In his Dudley Senanayake Memorial Lecture, Chilcott said: 'Let me be clear, I am not saying that the political aspiration for Eelam is illegitimate, any more than I would argue that the Scottish National Party's goal for an independent Scotland is illegitimate.
'Similarly, I see nothing illegitimate in some crackpot demanding that Yorkshire or some other English county should become an independent state.'
'What is crucial is what methods are used by the SNP or the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) to achieve their goals. And the LTTE's methods are simply unacceptable.'
Chilcott also said that the Sri Lankan government should stop branding all support for human rights and a peaceful solution to the ethnic conflict in the island as 'unpatriotic'.
He demanded that the government stop demonising international organizations like the UNICEF. He went on to say that in Sri Lanka, ministerial posts were being created not to do better work but to secure political support.
Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona summoned the envoy and told him that his remark on the legitimacy of the Eelam demand was 'unacceptable' to the Sri Lankan government, given the British government's categorical rejection of a separate state in Sri Lanka.
However, despite the chiding, the British high commission Friday issued a press release in its capacity as the local representative of the European Union, condemning the abduction of some relations of opposition MPs, ahead of the critical vote on the annual budget in parliament.
The EU release said it was 'deeply concerned' about the abductions and urged those who had any influence over the kidnappers to work towards their release unharmed.
Sri Lanka army backed paramilitary TMVP (also called the Karuna Group) abducted the brother of Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance MP P. Ariyanethran, P. Sriskandaseya, 54, secretary of TNA MP K. Thangeswari, Ira Nagalingam and the son-in-law of TNA MP S. Jeyanandamoorthy's sister, Arunasalam Sivapalan, 28 prior to the budget vote.
The paramilitary warned the family members of the three abducted victims that the TNA MPs should refrain from voting against the Budget of Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, if they wished to see them live on Saturday.
The three MPs duly abstained and those abducted were released thereafter.
However, Kohona told Chilcott that preliminary investigations had found that the allegations against the Pillaiyan group were baseless.
The ambassadors of the United States, the European Union, France, Korea and Sweden were summoned for a dressing down by foreign ministry secretary Palitha Kohona, AFP quoted the ministry as saying.
Diplomats from Canada and the Netherlands were also to be summoned Friday, the ministry said, adding a complaint over remarks made at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this week will be forwarded to New Zealand's Delhi-based envoy.
The foreign ministry in Colombo said it had conveyed its "serious concern" that Sri Lanka, which has categorically rejected the presence of foreign monitors, was being subjected to escalating international criticism.
Colombo also expressed its "deep displeasure" to Britain's high commissioner to Sri Lanka, Dominic Chilcott, over comments interpreted as being sympathetic to the Tamil demand for independence.
The foreign ministry "drew attention to the high commissioner's comment, 'I am not saying that the political aspiration for Eelam (separate Tamil state) is illegitimate' and expressed the government's deep concern," the statement said.
"At a time when the painstaking process of evolving a negotiated political settlement was under way, such sentiments would have a negative impact and send confusing signals," the Sri Lankan foreign ministry said.
“We would tell the British high commissioner not to interfere in the internal affairs of our country,” IANS quoted Cabinet Minister and Chief Government Whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle as saying before the meeting.
'Chilcott still thinks that Sri Lanka is a colony of Britain,' said Fernandopulle.
Giving a hint of what might happen if Chilcott continued to do what he had done, Fernandopulle said that in the late 1980s, Sri Lanka had expelled British High Commissioner David Gladstone for overstepping his brief.
Gladstone had entered a polling station at Dikwella and publicly complained about the malpractices taking place there.
In his Dudley Senanayake Memorial Lecture, Chilcott said: 'Let me be clear, I am not saying that the political aspiration for Eelam is illegitimate, any more than I would argue that the Scottish National Party's goal for an independent Scotland is illegitimate.
'Similarly, I see nothing illegitimate in some crackpot demanding that Yorkshire or some other English county should become an independent state.'
'What is crucial is what methods are used by the SNP or the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) to achieve their goals. And the LTTE's methods are simply unacceptable.'
Chilcott also said that the Sri Lankan government should stop branding all support for human rights and a peaceful solution to the ethnic conflict in the island as 'unpatriotic'.
He demanded that the government stop demonising international organizations like the UNICEF. He went on to say that in Sri Lanka, ministerial posts were being created not to do better work but to secure political support.
Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona summoned the envoy and told him that his remark on the legitimacy of the Eelam demand was 'unacceptable' to the Sri Lankan government, given the British government's categorical rejection of a separate state in Sri Lanka.
However, despite the chiding, the British high commission Friday issued a press release in its capacity as the local representative of the European Union, condemning the abduction of some relations of opposition MPs, ahead of the critical vote on the annual budget in parliament.
The EU release said it was 'deeply concerned' about the abductions and urged those who had any influence over the kidnappers to work towards their release unharmed.
Sri Lanka army backed paramilitary TMVP (also called the Karuna Group) abducted the brother of Batticaloa district Tamil National Alliance MP P. Ariyanethran, P. Sriskandaseya, 54, secretary of TNA MP K. Thangeswari, Ira Nagalingam and the son-in-law of TNA MP S. Jeyanandamoorthy's sister, Arunasalam Sivapalan, 28 prior to the budget vote.
The paramilitary warned the family members of the three abducted victims that the TNA MPs should refrain from voting against the Budget of Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, if they wished to see them live on Saturday.
The three MPs duly abstained and those abducted were released thereafter.
However, Kohona told Chilcott that preliminary investigations had found that the allegations against the Pillaiyan group were baseless.
