UN envoy Kalin to arrive in Colombo Wednesday

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 September 2009, 17:30 GMT]
Mr. Walter Kalin, Human Rights envoy of the United Nations is scheduled to arrive in Colombo late Wednesday on a five-day visit that includes a tour to Vanni IDP camps holding tens of thousands of refugees. "Mr. Kalin will meet with senior government officials, international aid agencies, including UN staff, and also visit some sites holding internally displaced people (IDPs)," UN sources said.

Mr. Kalin is expected to press for the speedy resettlement of 300,000 IDPs held in Sri Lanka Army (SLA) internment camps.

Kalin would also press for better conditions for the Tamil civilians held in internment camps. He will follow up assuarances made by Sri Lanka government to resettle the IDPs at the earliest," according to a UN official in Colombo who declined to be named.

His trip comes a week after the visit of the UN's Under Secretary General Lynn Pascoe who was in Sri Lanka last week.

Lynn had expressed concern over the plight of refugees and also urged Sri Lanka to investigate rights abuses during the final stages of the civil war.