Sri Lanka rejects fresh UN humanitarian mission

Sri Lanka yesterday flatly rejected a plan by the UN to send a special humanitarian mission to the island's war-torn north.

"There is no need for the UN to send people from abroad to visit those areas," Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told reporters, a day after UN chief Ban Ki-moon announced a team would be sent to Sri Lanka.

"We have agreed in principle for a visit by UN staff based here (in Colombo) to go in there (to the conflict zone)," the minister added, signalling that Colombo remained unwilling to give free access to the north. He said the government was working out the modalities to grant access to the Colombo-based UN staffers, but said intense fighting between troops and Tamil Tiger rebels was making it "virtually impossible".