It is interesting to note that the UK envoy to the UN Sawyers maintained recently that 'IMF Loan Not Relevant' when questioned about the shortfall of Sri Lankan government funds to pay for arms and the *emergency* IMF loan of what is now understood to amount to $2.6 bn.


A "letter before action," yet to be officially released, has been sent to
Rt.Hon. John Hutton, M.P., Secretary of State for Defense,
Rt.Hon. Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer,
David Miliband, British Foreign Secretary, (FM)
and Lord Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform

Miliband runs in a hurry to Sri Lanka
==========================
As the news of the legal challenge gets out the FM is travelling in a hurry to Sri Lanka tomorrow (Wed 29 Apr)
Even more interesting is the denial of visa to the influential Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt (who had been instrumental in re-enacting the Bofors gun deal that brought down Rajiv Gandhi 20 years ago, to be sold to region) who scheduled to visit Sri Lanka in a capacity of EU representative.
Earlier Sri Lanka had conceded through a Sri Lankan Presidential Secretariat issued a statement on (Mon 27th Apr) that: “Our security forces have been instructed to end the use of heavy calibre guns, combat aircraft and aerial weapons which could cause civilian casualties.”

Though the Howitzer guns that Bofors specialises in dealing to the regional power India are not used on the Tamils directly, the intricate web regional 'defence' equipment procurement (read arms dealings and dumping of older stock to basket cases like Sri Lanka) are so much in concert that India, China, Iran and Pakistan -- all four -- supply weaponry in concert to fuel the conflict.
It is widely understood that the bulk of the IMF loan is meant to pay off for new equipment that are needed since Sri Lanka started military connections with Iran which in turn angered Israel to stop selling spare parts and ammunition.

Sri Lankan Official : 'We are not a colony and neither a bankrupt Third World country'
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"Some think they can land up at our airport and expect a red carpet treatment. We are not a colony and neither a bankrupt Third World country. Our main donors are in Asia, not in Europe," the official added.

Bildt said he had been denied a visa and described the snub as "exceedingly strange behaviour." He was recalling the top Swedish diplomat to Colombo.

Arms Trade
=========
As David Miliband and his french counterpart are now scheduled to visit Colombo tomorrow it will be interesting to see how much emphasis they will pay to the IMF loan (the loan itself has had two different excuses so far from the borrower and the lender)

Re: IMF - UK's responsibility to rectify mistakes
===================================
Further to the historical mistake (if not purposely manipulated foreign and commonwealth policy) t Great Britain is *responsible* for forcing independence on Ceylon in 1948 as one administrative unit, a move made in 1833 to rule over three distinct kingdoms.

Then there is the question of UK's special envoy for the G20 Summit, Lord Malloch-Brown and his dealings in postponing Sri Lanka from being subjected to a 26 point human/environmental/ labour rights inspections -- pre conditons for GSP+ scheme whereby the only south asian beneficiary is exempt from trade tarrifs. Lord Malloch-Brown and the then leader of British industry Sir Stuart Rose (of M&S infame) took it upon themselves to guarantee the GSP+ scheme was 'on track'.

Then there is the R2P concept on international law


Not finally ... but in order stop and draw attention to the subject of the story... Gordon Brown himself unveiled plans to boost the 'world economy' apparently in recession by injecting a trillion US Dollars at the recent G20 Leader's summit.
So this is where the first batch of the $750 bn allocated to the IMF is coming out
-- arms for continuation of the Genocide in Sri Lanka!

Stop the genocide.
Give support to this worthy action.

Legal challenge to block IMF loan, charges UK's complicity in Genocide
[TamilNet, Tuesday, 28 April 2009, 13:35 GMT]

 http://tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=29205