Probe mission incident: Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka on Friday expressed concern at the forcible entry earlier in the day of protesters into its mission premises in New Delhi and requested India to investigate the incident.

In a statement here, the Foreign Ministry said the High Commission in New Delhi brought to its notice that a mob of 40-50 persons had assembled at the main gate and around 10 persons made a forcible entry, causing some damage to its premises. “They were holding placards in English which read ‘Retrieve Kachativu from Sri Lanka’, and ‘Stop killing Tamil Nadu fishermen’.”

U.N. criticism

In another development, Colombo said it accepted much of the United Nations’ recent criticism of its handling of 2.5 lakh war displaced people, housed in government-run relief villages in the north.

Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe promised that the government would positively look at the recommendations made by Walter Kaelin, a representative of the U.N. Secretary-General, who toured the relief camps last week.

Mr. Kaelin, in his report, asked Sri Lanka to comply with its international obligations and said a clash at the weekend between the troops and a group of the displaced raised serious human rights issues.

Meanwhile, Reporters without Borders said it was worried about the safety of Dileesha Abeysundera, a journalist working for the Sinhalese weekly Irudina, who might have been the target of a kidnap attempt on Wednesday night, when unidentified men tried to force their way into her home in the Colombo suburb of Borella.

“The abduction and aggression of journalist and press freedom activist Poddala Jayantha in June showed that this kind of threat is to be taken seriously,” the RSF said in a statement.

“Political gangs continue to intimidate journalists and human rights activists with complete impunity. We urge the authorities to carry out a thorough investigation in response to Dileesha Abeysundera’s complaint.”

The newspaper she works for is part of the Leader Publications group, which also owns TheSunday Leader. She is the deputy secretary of the Free Media Movement and secretary of the National Forum for Journalists.