United States Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O’ Blake expressed his satisfaction about the de-mining process being carried out by the Army with the assistance of other foreign agencies and for the early resettlement of all IDPs in Jaffna, Jaffna Security Forces Headquarters said. Mr. Blake who was also the former United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives arrived in Jaffna yesterday on a one day visit. He was accompanied by several senior officials of the US Department of State and the Embassy, was received by Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe on his arrival in the Headquarters SF-J office at Palaly.
Later, Commander SF-J explained to the visiting senior US diplomat and his retinue that humanitarian assistance was being extended by the Army to Jaffna civilians to uplift their quality of life while assisting the civil administrative authorities and police when and where necessary.
The high level diplomatic team met Jaffna Bishop Rev. Fr. Dr. Thomas Soundranayagam, senior administrative officials of the Jaffna District Secretariat and also visited a few places before leaving for Colombo.
Special Assistant US Department of State Ms Kristin Roberts, Deputy Chief of Mission US Embassy Ms Valerie Fowler and Political Officer US Embassy Jacob Chriqui also comprised the delegation.
