US embassy cable - 02COLOMBO1927

C O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 001927 
 
SIPDIS 
 
OFFICIAL INFORMAL 
 
DEPT FOR SA/INS FROM AMBASSADOR WILLS 
 
E.O. 12958:  DECL:  10-16-12 
TAGS: AMGT, CE 
SUBJECT:  OFFICIAL INFORMAL NUMBER 143 (10-16-02) 
 
 
Classified by DCM Lewis Amselem, Reasons 1.5 (b, d) 
 
CONTENTS:  GSL RE IRAQ 
           MM 2 D 
           MALDIVES/ICC ARTICLE 98 
           BALASINGHAM/HELGESEN 
           AGREMENT REQUEST 
           JIM WALLER 
 
GSL RE IRAQ 
----------- 
1.  (C) On October 15, Milinda Moragoda passed to the 
Ambassador an advance copy of a statement on Iraq that 
the GSL is planning to release in the near future. 
 
Begin text: 
 
--  Sri Lanka welcomes the decision of the government of 
Iraq to allow the weapons inspectors entry into the 
country without any condition. 
 
--  Sri Lanka hopes that the decision of Iraq will pave 
the way for the weapons inspectors to resume their work 
without further delay in that country towards the 
elimination of weapons of mass destruction. 
 
--  Sri Lanka has long argued that Iraq should fully 
comply with all Security Council Resolutions and respect 
its international commitments to avoid further escalation 
of tension in the region.  End text. 
 
MORAGODA'S MEETING WITH D 
------------------------- 
2. (SBU) Moragoda is eager to know when he will have his 
meeting with the Deputy Secretary.  He has been invited 
to Tokyo by the Japanese to discuss donor issues; his 
travel to Japan is contingent on when he sees D.  He 
would appreciate an answer asap. 
 
MALDIVES/ICC ARTICLE 98 
----------------------- 
3.  (C) You would have seen our front-channel yesterday 
reporting the latest on where the GSL stands on signing 
the bilateral agreement (Colombo 1919).  We are 
essentially just waiting for the GSL to name a time for 
the signing ceremony (unless some problem crops up).  We 
will keep on it.  By the way, we have not forgotten the 
Maldives.  The Maldivians still have not gotten back to 
us re our recent dipnote on this issue (and our many 
previous entreaties).  Our idea now is to wait until we 
have the GSL signature in the bag and then approach Male 
again.  That might help enlist the GoRM, we think. 
 
BALASINGHAM/HELGESEN 
-------------------- 
4.  (C) The Ops Center called today to confirm that 
Balasingham was now in Sri Lanka.  In what was certainly 
one of those wacky coincidences that science alone cannot 
explain, we had actually reported on this issue yesterday 
in Colombo 1920!!   The Ops Center promised to read that 
message.  Further details re Balasingham's stopover at 
Colombo's airport:  At a reception at the Residence last 
night for the visiting Defense Planning team, we were 
told by GSL officials that Balasingham and his wife 
arrived at Colombo's airport from London on a regular Sri 
Lankan Airlines flight.  Both he and his wife, Adele, 
were in first class (how revolutionary can you get!!). 
They  were then whisked in a GSL chopper to the Wanni. 
Balasingham apparently used a British passport for 
immigration purposes.  Re Deputy Foreign Minister 
Helgesen, we understand from Milinda that he and his team 
are due to arrive in Colombo this coming weekend. 
 
AGREMENT REQUEST 
---------------- 
5.  (SBU) Just want to make sure that you saw Devinda 
Subasinghe's agrement request (Colombo 1918) and are 
processing it.  We also faxed his official c.v. 
 
JIM WALLER 
---------- 
6.  (U) When Jim was last seen, he was getting into a 
vehicle yesterday for a trip down south.  He's due back 
in Colombo tonight.  While suffering from loads of 
jetlag, Jim valiantly attended loads of the defense 
planning team's meetings earlier in the week. 
 
WILLS