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FM summons UN official

COLOMBO: Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama summoned WFP Representative and Country Director and the Acting UN Resident and Humanitarian Co-ordinator Jeff Taft Dick over the issue of the abduction of the two UN workers by the LTTE, yesterday.

Expressing concern over the incident, the Minister said it was a failure on the part of the UN not to inform the Government of the abduction as soon as it happened in February.

The UN officially brought it before the Government on April 27.

Questioning the use of the term 'arrest' for the abduction in a UN statement and the delay in informing the law enforcement authorities, the Minister charged it was "An attempt to shield LTTE's criminal actions."

"No international or local organisation can term it that way." Addressing media later on the Minister explained the LTTE, a branded terrorist organisation had no right to arrest anyone in the country.

He has informed the Acting UN Head this failure by the UN office in Sri Lanka made the government unable to discharge its obligations under the 1994 UN Convention on the safety of the UN and Associated Personnel, to which Sri Lanka is a party.

Bogollagama has also expressed surprise over keeping the abduction and the detention a secret from UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

"The Secretary General says he has not been aware of it."

"This is a very serious state of affairs", he stressed.

At the meeting the UN envoy had admitted the use of the term 'arrest' was a mistake and that the UN classified this as an abduction. He agreed to convey the Government's concerns to the UN.

Dick informed one abducted worker has already been released and the LTTE political wing leader has conveyed that the case against the other is under review.

Responding to media queries the Minister said since the UN has now put the record straight they would not want to pursue it further.

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