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Sunday, 6th December 2009

New posting of envoy sparks diplomatic row with Sri Lanka

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Published Date: 14 February 2009
GORDON Brown's decision to appoint a special envoy to Sri Lanka sparked a diplomatic row yesterday, as the war-torn Asian state rejected the move as "a disrespectful intrusion".
Mahinda Rajapaksa, the president, and his cabinet objected that London had failed to consult Colombo before the "unhelpful" appointment of former defence secretary Des Browne.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, told Rohitha Bogollagama, his counterpart in Sri Lanka, that the appointment was not intended to be "unilateral".

Downing Street said that Mr Browne would focus on the humanitarian crisis in the northern region and Sri Lanka's work on a political solution to the conflict with the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.



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  • Last Updated: 13 February 2009 10:41 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Sri Lanka
 
1

,

14/02/2009 00:40:57
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
2

Edward,

14/02/2009 02:17:58
Milliband is becoming more a jinx than his boss!
Recently he completly annoyed the Indian government, to such a degree that little Lord Voldemort had to be sent to smooth things over.Now can see the dark Lord will have to to Sri Lanka and do som more smoothing.
As for Whispering Des Browne, now that is very funny, the dear Leaderseems to have a sense of humour after all. Des Browne botched up the MOD amongst other things,so send himon some made up job
3

tambi,

australia 14/02/2009 05:27:08
Brown put his foot in his mouth again! I heard that the Tamils in Canada, Australia and other Commonwealth countries are going to ask for an independent homeland in each of the Commonwealth countries for themselves as well after they have successfully setup Tamil Eelam state in northern Sri Lanka. Tamils claimed that they were invited by the British colonialist to contribute to nation building in the outer rims of the British Empire.
4

Auld Twa,

Edinburgh 14/02/2009 07:51:20
Poor Des, just as welcome over there as he was up here !
You can't really understand the arrogance of the Brown government. Why should the Sri Lankans need an ex-defence secretary as a special envoy ? The UK has not been all that successful on homeland security over the years.
5

ochone,

Sauchie, Clacks 14/02/2009 12:14:20
Can't say I blame the Sri Lankans, I mean Des Brown.
their probbly worried by the fact that he was so good at two jobs he is now an ex-minister

If ever a man was guaranteed to make a bad situation worse it's old two jobs 'desperate'Des.

I suppose he could have proposed another Calman Commission.

6

LEAL,

14/02/2009 13:33:47
Maybe Brown is sending Browne to Sri-Lanka to beg for some cash
7

Questions,

14/02/2009 15:53:59
This appointment is another special snout in the trough.

The end is near for the New Labour rabble.

I suspect that like Big X in the Great Escape,; Brown is now trying to get as many Labour hacks into diplomatic posts.

The ship is going down and the rats are deserting it.
8

Westfield Bairns,

SNP - SCOTLANDS PARTY 14/02/2009 19:43:09
Oh dear can't find enough jobs for the troughers. We keep on telling our Colonial yes man to fork off but Lurch Murphy hangs about like a bad smell much to the displeasure of Ian Gray who hates him even more than we do

 

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