Clinton visits Kalmunai to inspect tsunami reconstruction

[TamilNet, Saturday, 28 May 2005, 06:48 GMT]
Former US President Bill Clinton arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday in a special aircraft from India to inspect the tsunami reconstruction process in his capacity as the UN Special envoy for tsunami reconstruction. On Saturday morning, Mr. Clinton flew to Kalmunai in the Eastern Batticaloa district to personally inspect the reconstruction activities and is expected to meet the community leaders there, sources from Kalmunai said.

Finance Minister Dr Sarath Amunugama received Mr. Clinton at the Bandaranaike International Airport amidst tight security on Friday.

The visiting special UN envoy will be hosted to lunch by President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga at her residence Saturday prior to which she will brief him on the post tsunami reconstruction program of her Marxist-backed Freedom Alliance Government.

Clinton is scheduled to meet representatives of the donor community based in Colombo and civil society leaders on Saturday afternoon after turning from Kalmunai.

After hosting a media conference in Colombo at 4.30 pm, Clinton will head to the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives, where the tsunami killed 82 people.

He will end his trip with a visit to Indonesia, the worst-hit country.

Clinton last visited some of the tsunami hit areas in southern Sri Lanka in February with former US President, George H.W. Bush.