UN special envoy arrives in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 September 2005, 16:37 GMT]
United Nations special envoy Mr.Lakhdar Brahimi arrived in Colombo Friday night on a five-day visit. During his stay he is scheduled to meet Sri Lanka's President, Prime Minister, opposition leader and leaders of political parties, sources said.

A delegation of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is to meet UN special envoy on 6 September evening at Hilton Hotel at the latter's invitation, TNA sources said.

Mr.Brahimi is expected to discuss with leaders of government and other political parties on human rights violations and the number of killings in the context of the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, sources said.

Mr. Brahimi is the former Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (from 3 October 2001 to 31 December 2004).

From 1991 to 1993, Mr. Brahimi served as the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs and was the Under-Secretary-General of the League of Arab States from 1984 to 1991. During 1989 to 1991, Mr. Brahimi was appointed the Special Envoy of the Arab League Tripartite Committee to Lebanon and mediated the end of the civil war in that country.

Mr. Brahimi was the Diplomatic Adviser to the President of Algeria from 1982 to 1984; Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Egypt and Sudan; as well as, the Permanent Representative to the Arab League in Cairo from 1963 to 1970.