Britain Signals Unease With Sri Lanka By Abstaining on Imf Loan Vote
Britain abstains as IMF votes on loan to Sri Lanka
Britain made clear its discontent over Sri Lanka's treatment of Tamil refugees last night by abstaining from a vote at the International Monetary Fund to give $2.4bn (£1.46 bn) to the country.
The abstention, the first by the UK since 2004, signals the degree of unease in London over the handling of the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka following the government's recent victory in its civil war against the Tamil Tigers. The US, Germany and France also abstained.
Hundreds of thousands of Tamils fled the north-east of the country earlier this year when the government launched an offensive against the Tamil Tigers that ended with the final capture of the group's last hideout and the killing of its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in May. Some 280,000 people, almost exclusively Tamils, are still being held in detention camps by the government despite condemnation from humanitarian and aid groups.
Stephen Timms, the financial secretary to the Treasury, said in a letter to MPs last night that Britain "remain[s] concerned with the humanitarian situation in the internally displaced people's camps.
"We support the UN's recent call for the government of Sri Lanka to develop a comprehensive resettlement strategy for IDPs, to allow them to return home as soon as possible."
Timms also called on Sri Lanka to honour its commitment to allow all the Tamil refugees to return to the north within 180 days.
The British abstention was more symbolic than practical in that the IMF loan will go ahead in any case. It was approved by the IMF executive board in Washington last night, with $322 million to be made available to the Sri Lanka immediately and the rest flowing subject to quarterly reviews by the fund.
Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, appealed for IMF help in February arguing that it faced a financial crunch brought about by the combination of declining exports and foreign disinvestments in government bonds.
Britain and the US pressed for that request to be put on hold during the Sri Lankan army offensive which led to a heavy toll in civilian lives.
On Tuesday the head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said the time had come to put concerns about the loan to one side. He said: "The end of the conflict provides Sri Lanka with a unique opportunity to undertake economic reform and reconstruction, which would be key to laying the basis for higher economic growth in the years ahead.
"To this end, the government has formulated an ambitious program aimed at restoring fiscal and external viability and addressing the significant reconstruction needs of the conflict-affected areas."
The British position remains skeptical of that view. Timms said that in London's view the likelihood of a Sri Lankan default had diminished in recent weeks.
The condition inside the detention camps is hard to gauge precisely because of the lack of access for journalists, humanitarian workers or monitors. There have been reports of rampant disease in some of the larger concentrations of Tamils, with water-borne illnesses such as diarrhea claiming a further terrible toll.
The last remaining outside agency with access to the area in which the fighting occurred, the International Committee of the Red Cross, has itself come under pressure in recent days from the Sri Lankan government to quit the north-east on the grounds that the war is now over.
The abstention, the first by the UK since 2004, signals the degree of unease in London over the handling of the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka following the government's recent victory in its civil war against the Tamil Tigers. The US, Germany and France also abstained.
Hundreds of thousands of Tamils fled the north-east of the country earlier this year when the government launched an offensive against the Tamil Tigers that ended with the final capture of the group's last hideout and the killing of its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in May. Some 280,000 people, almost exclusively Tamils, are still being held in detention camps by the government despite condemnation from humanitarian and aid groups.
Stephen Timms, the financial secretary to the Treasury, said in a letter to MPs last night that Britain "remain[s] concerned with the humanitarian situation in the internally displaced people's camps.
"We support the UN's recent call for the government of Sri Lanka to develop a comprehensive resettlement strategy for IDPs, to allow them to return home as soon as possible."
Timms also called on Sri Lanka to honour its commitment to allow all the Tamil refugees to return to the north within 180 days.
The British abstention was more symbolic than practical in that the IMF loan will go ahead in any case. It was approved by the IMF executive board in Washington last night, with $322 million to be made available to the Sri Lanka immediately and the rest flowing subject to quarterly reviews by the fund.
Sri Lanka's president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, appealed for IMF help in February arguing that it faced a financial crunch brought about by the combination of declining exports and foreign disinvestments in government bonds.
Britain and the US pressed for that request to be put on hold during the Sri Lankan army offensive which led to a heavy toll in civilian lives.
On Tuesday the head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said the time had come to put concerns about the loan to one side. He said: "The end of the conflict provides Sri Lanka with a unique opportunity to undertake economic reform and reconstruction, which would be key to laying the basis for higher economic growth in the years ahead.
"To this end, the government has formulated an ambitious program aimed at restoring fiscal and external viability and addressing the significant reconstruction needs of the conflict-affected areas."
The British position remains skeptical of that view. Timms said that in London's view the likelihood of a Sri Lankan default had diminished in recent weeks.
The condition inside the detention camps is hard to gauge precisely because of the lack of access for journalists, humanitarian workers or monitors. There have been reports of rampant disease in some of the larger concentrations of Tamils, with water-borne illnesses such as diarrhea claiming a further terrible toll.
The last remaining outside agency with access to the area in which the fighting occurred, the International Committee of the Red Cross, has itself come under pressure in recent days from the Sri Lankan government to quit the north-east on the grounds that the war is now over.
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