British premier wants ceasefire in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 January 2009, 20:24 GMT]
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, while responding to a question by Keith Vaz MP about the plight of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka and the killing of Sunday Leader editor, said Britain’s Parliament Wednesday that there is a need for a ceasefire in Sri Lanka and that he would be raising the matter with French President Nikolas Sakorzy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Mr. Brown was speaking during the first Prime Minister’s Questions of 2009.

“Hundreds of thousand of innocent Tamil civilians are currently under siege in Sri Lanka because of aerial bombardment by the Sri Lankan government,” Mr. Vaz told Parliament. “Last Sunday (sic) the editor of a leading newspaper was assassinated. He said in an [editorial] written before he was killed that this was due to the forces of the government,”

“Will the Prime Minister please use his good offices, either unilaterally or through the European Union, to call for a ceasefire, so that all those involved in this conflict stop their violence, so that peace can return to this beautiful island?”

Premier Brown responded: “I agree with [Mr. Vaz] about the terrible violence happening there, I also agree with him about the need for a ceasefire, I will be talking to President Sakorzy and Chancellor Merkal and this will be one of the issues I shall be raising with them.”