4th April 2017 Colombo, Sri Lanka
It’s 20 years since Princess Diana walked through a minefield in Angola and changed the way we think about land mines. And it’s 20 years since the Ottawa Convention banning their use was concluded. But mines and unexploded ordnance still cause indiscriminate destruction and hinder development in over 63 countries and territories around the world […]
4th April 2016 Colombo, Sri Lanka
Since 2010, the British Government has spent over £5 million on de-mining in Sri Lanka. Anyone wondering why humanitarian demining agencies are still working here years after the end of the war need look no further than the achievements of UK funded deminers in just two months this year. During February and March, the men […]
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4th April 2015 Colombo, Sri Lanka
To mark Mine Awareness and Action Day, I asked our partners HALO Trust to write about their work in Sri Lanka. “The HALO Trust is the world’s largest and oldest humanitarian demining organisation, with staff in 17 counties and territories around the world. Our core activity is clearing mine-contaminated land needed for housing, agriculture and […]
6th February 2015 Colombo, Sri Lanka
Hugo Swire, our Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, visited Sri Lanka last week. It’s always good to get in early, and his was the first bilateral visit to the new Government of Sri Lanka. It was an exciting opportunity for my Government to congratulate President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremasinghe face to face, and […]