With eradication of terrorism:

Sri Lanka safe place for tourists - Foreign Ministry

Chminda Perera

The Foreign Ministry has directed all Sri Lankan missions overseas to persuade the host countries to lift travel advisories on Sri Lanka as the country's situation has rapidly changed with the eradication of terrorism.

According to a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Sri Lankan envoys in foreign missions were directed to initiate a dialogue with the respective Foreign Ministries and convince them that Sri Lanka is a safer place for tourists.

He said they have been asked to highlight that Sri Lanka for the past two years have held a number of international conferences and summits such as SARRC and no incidents of violence or terrorist activities were reported from any part of the country after terrorism was completely eradicated by the Security Forces.

The Foreign missions will also educate the respective Governments on the initiatives taken by the Health Ministry to control epidemics such as swine flu and Dengue, he said.

"International insurance underwriters based in London recently lowered the war risk level of Sri Lanka from 3.4 to 3.0 and changed the Sri Lanka's status from severe to high. The Joint Cargo Committee of London also removed Sri Lanka from the JCC's Air - war \strikes risk list," he said.