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C O N F I D E N T I A L HELSINKI 000885 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/03/2016 
TAGS: MARR PHUM PINS PREL PTER CE FI
SUBJECT: FINLAND AND SRI LANKA CONTACT GROUP 
 
REF: STATE 140812 
 
Classified By: EU Section Chief Kenneth Kolb, for reasons 1.4 (b) and ( 
d) 
 
¶1. (U) MFA Sri Lanka desk officer Marita Meranto assured 
emboff on September 4 that Finland would attend the Sri Lanka 
Contact Group's experts meeting in Washington on September 
¶27.  She said that because of the press of business arising 
from Finland's EU presidency, Finland's representative would 
probably come from its Washington embassy.  She requested 
more information on the meeting's agenda as it became 
available. 
 
¶2. (C) Meranto returned August 31 from a week of 
consultations in Sri Lanka.  She relayed that a military 
commander had told her that a ceasefire at this point in time 
would be "suicide" for GOSL be cause the LTTE had become "too 
strong" during the break in hostilities.  He was surprised 
when Meranto asked how long he thought military actions would 
continued but replied that it would not/not be "months and 
months." 
 
¶3. (C) Finland and the EU continue to be seized with the 
human rights and humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka. 
Meranto noted that the dismissal of NGOs from the disputed 
areas in the north and east prevented both the delivery of 
aid and the monitoring of human rights violations. She said 
that organizations outside of the government urged the 
international community to press the GOSL, and suggested 
using aid as a point of leverage and means of signalling 
dissatisfaction with its actions.  Meranto opined that since 
the GOSL was sensitive to its image in the international 
arena, continued international pressure may yield results. 
 
¶4. (U) An EU experts meeting in Brussels will ponder next 
steps on September 6. 
WARE