Sri Lanka voices anger as UK MPs address GTF

The diplomatic rift between London and Colombo widened after Prime Minister Gordon Brown and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband met delegates from a new worldwide Tamil union despite "strong protests" from the Sri Lankan government, British newspapers reported.

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 Tamil Tigers (LTTE), reported The Guardian.

The British acting high commissioner in Colombo, Mark Gooding, was summoned before the island's foreign minister and urged to tell Miliband to cancel his address.

"The Foreign Minister in this context emphasised that Foreign Secretary Miliband, by participating at today’s 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," the Foreign Ministry later said of Bogollagama’s meeting with the British diplomat.

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 Foreign Office spokesman told The Guardian 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."

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.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Sri Lankan ruling party activists demonstrated outside the British High Commission in Colombo on Monday March 1, denouncing what they called London's support for Tamil separatists abroad.

Demonstrators carried posters showing Miliband and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with devil's horns grafted onto their heads.

They were led by former member of parliament Wimal Weeravamsa, a key supporter of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

"What the British government is trying to do (by its support to the GTF) is to revive Tiger terrorism, and by extension, it is supporting the division of this nation," Weeravamsa told the protesters.

The protestors handed in a petition protesting against Miliband's attendance at the meeting.

After the protest, the demonstrators pasted large placards of Brown and Miliband, dressed in Tamil Tiger outfits, across the walls.

Miliband used his address to the inaugural conference of the Global Tamil Forum at the Commons 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 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.