Miliband in stand-up row with Sri Lanka defence minister over civilian deaths

Sri Lanka has published details of an apparently heated exchange between its Defence Secretary and David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, about the safety of civilians in the area held by the Tamil Tigers.

Mr Miliband and Bernard Kouchner, his French counterpart, were in Sri Lanka yesterday to urge the Government to call a ceasefire in the war against the Tamil rebels, to allow humanitarian access to tens of thousands of civilians on the front line.

They admitted last night that they had failed in their mission after meeting the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his Defence Secretary, who is also his brother and the man overseeing the drive to defeat the Tigers after 26 years of civil war.

Details of their conversation with Gotabaya Rajapaksa emerged this morning in a Sri Lankan newspaper and on the website of the Defence Ministry .

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The report said that Mr Miliband interrupted the Defence Secretary as he was describing how the army had rescued 200,000 civilians from the tiny strip of northeastern coastline where it has pinned down the Tigers.

Mr Miliband said that Britain had credible information that civilians were being harmed in the army’s artillery raids on the area — now covering only 3.8sq miles — in which the United Nations estimates there are still 50,000 non-combatants.

Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Defence Secretary — who is also a US citizen — said that Britain should not be “duped” by a disinformation campaign masterminded by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the Tigers are officially known.

“Even BBC is dishing out LTTE propaganda material without verification,” he was quoted as telling Mr Miliband.

Mr Miliband responded that his claim was not based on BBC reports but on credible information from sources on the front line.

“Apparently annoyed, the Defence Secretary said anyone who knew the LTTE would not believe that any reliable information would emanate from that area under its jackboot,” the report said.

The Defence Secretary had added that it was up to the British delegation to decide whether it should believe what a terrorist group said or what a responsible officer of a legitimate government told them, according to the report. link...