Multilateralism

International cooperation minister Oda meets FM

• Report rights infringement
• published: 21 Jul 2015
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SHOTLIST 1. Various of Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, shaking hands with visiting Canadian Minister of International Cooperation, Beverley J Oda 2. Wide of meeting between Bogollagama and Oda 3. Mid of Bogollagama and Oda 4. Sri Lankan officials at meeting 5. Canadian officials at meeting 6. Wide of meeting 7. Bogollagama and Oda entering news conference 8. Cutaway of cameramen 9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Beverley J Oda, Canadian Minister of International Cooperation: "Our concern of course is the present situation with the terrorists, and that we ask all parties to cease fire so that the civilians who are victims can be sought... see that their basic needs - their health and their safety - is what is of uppermost importance to all Canadians." 10. Cutaway of cameramen 11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Beverley J Oda, Canadian Minister of International Cooperation: "As we know that there are elements of the community that Canada has identified, and so consequently being a member or supporting the Tamil Tigers, the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), is illegal in Canada." 12. Cutaway of cameramen STORYLINE: Canada's minister of international cooperation met Sri Lanka's foreign minister in Colombo on Monday, to discuss the situation in the north of the country, where government troops are fighting Tamil Tiger insurgents. Speaking after meeting Rohitha Bogollagama, Beverley Oda reiterated international calls for a ceasefire so that civilians trapped by the fighting could get to safety. Sri Lankan forces continued to fight Tamil Tiger insurgents from three sides, the military said on Monday, pushing deeper into rebel-held territory amid a report that navy gunboats heavily shelled an area packed with civilians. With concerns growing for the tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the war zone, Oda was one of a number of international officials visiting Colombo to hold talks with the government. A delegation of five British lawmakers arrived for a two-day visit that would include meetings with officials, the opposition, aid groups and a trip to the displacement camps in the north, where 200-thousand civilians who fled the fighting have taken refuge. Last week, the foreign ministers of Britain and France travelled to Sri Lanka to appeal for a ceasefire in the fighting, which the government rejected. The government has vowed to crush the rebel group and end the country's quarter-century civil war. Out of deference for the civilians in the war zone, the government promised last week to cease using artillery, mortar fire and airstrikes. However, health officials in the region reported continued shelling, including an attack on a makeshift hospital that killed 64 patients and bystanders on Saturday. The hospital was nearly hit again on Sunday night, when shells landed around 300 feet (100 metres) away, according to the top government health official in the war zone. That attack scared off much of the remaining staff in the only medical facility left in the area, he said. Navy gunboats also fired scores of shells along the coast on Monday morning as desperately hungry families crowded the shore to buy fish from returning fishermen, he said by telephone from the region as a blast echoed in the distance. The military has repeatedly denied shelling the area, saying troops are using only small arms in the battle. Aid groups accuse the rebels of holding an estimated 50-thousand civilians as human shields, a charge the rebels deny. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/f334457829a8bc32293957621e2dc8d6 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork