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STOCKHOLM — Sweden recalled its top diplomat in Sri Lanka on Tuesday after Foreign Minister Carl Bildt was blocked from joining a European delegation pressing for a cease-fire between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.
Bildt had planned to visit Sri Lanka this week with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French counterpart Bernard Kouchner to appeal for an immediate cease-fire and to call for peace talks to end the quarter-century civil war. They got permission to enter, but Bildt was told he was welcome to visit in May instead.
"This is remarkable. You just don't act this way," Bildt told The Associated Press. He said he was not planning to accept the invitation to visit Sri Lanka in May.
Bildt, a former U.N. envoy to the Balkans, said he did not receive any explanation for the decision, which he called "not good" for relations between Sri Lanka and Sweden. He promptly recalled the Scandinavian country's charge d'affaires in Colombo for consultations.
The European Union also condemned Sri Lanka's move.
"I do think it is a grave mistake by the Sri Lankan government which, of course, will have repercussions in Europe and will influence further relations between the Sri Lankan government and European states," Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg told reporters in Luxembourg.
The Czechs currently hold the EU rotating presidency. Sweden takes over the six-month presidency in July.
Sri Lanka's ambassador to Sweden, R.P. Jayasooriya, denied that Bildt was refused entry. The Swede was asked to come at a later date because only Kouchner and Miliband were part of the scheduled visit on Wednesday, Jayasooriya told the AP.
"There is no refusal," he said. "Colombo has a lot of (visits by) ministers, and we cannot accommodate them all at the same time."
He suggested Sri Lanka would not retaliate for Sweden recalling its charge d'affaires. "There is no such thing. We are having a very close and cordial relationship with Sweden," he said.
In a statement, Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry said the government was "wrongly accused" of preventing Bildt from visiting the country.
"It needs to be understood that in this instance there had been no formal prior consultations with the government of Sri Lanka with regard to the visit of the Swedish foreign minister," the statement said.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Frederic Desagneaux said Kouchner and Miliband's visit would go ahead as planned, but added that Bildt had been included in the original travel plans.
"We are disappointed that Carl Bildt is not able to join David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner, as planned," Desagneaux said.
EU foreign ministers on Monday called for a cease-fire so the U.N. can coordinate evacuation of civilians caught in the war zone. The Sri Lankan government said it would immediately stop air strikes and artillery attacks but has rejected calls for a cease-fire.
According to the U.N., the conflict has cornered the rebels and tens of thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians on a small strip of land in the northeastern part of the country, killing nearly 6,500 civilians over the last three months.
Uppsala University Professor Peter Schalk, who specializes in Sri Lankan history, said Bildt's visit may have been stopped as a show of discontent with Sweden's perceived softness toward the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, listed as a terrorist group by the EU.
"It hasn't, like Britain and France, banned the showing of the Tiger flag, for example," Schalk said.
He said Sweden may also have been punished for supporting neighboring Norway's efforts to mediate in the conflict.
Earlier this month, Sri Lanka's government dropped Norway as a mediator, accusing Oslo of failing to protect its mission there from Tamil protesters. Sri Lankan Tamil expatriates have taken to the streets in European capitals over the past months to protest the military offensives and to demand a cease-fire.
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Associated Press writers Karl Ritter in Stockholm, Constant Brand in Luxembourg, Ravi Nessman in Colombo and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
