Sri Lanka on Tuesday barred Sweden's foreign minister from entering the island on a humanitarian mission, as diplomatic tensions mounted over the conduct of the war on the Tamil Tigers.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt had been due to travel to the war-torn country this week to press demands for aid workers to be given full access to civilians trapped by heavy fighting between government troops and the rebels.
But a Sri Lankan foreign ministry official indicated that Colombo felt it had already done enough by allowing Britain and France's top diplomats -- David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner -- to visit on Wednesday.
"The Swedish minister also wanted to jump on that bandwagon and we said no," the official said.
"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 described the snub as "exceedingly strange behaviour," and said he was recalling the Swedish ambassador to Colombo.
Source
Nice work SL. Now I Know MR definitely have balls
