Sri Lankan president heads to France

President Chandrika Kumaratunga: Hectic diplomacy

By South Asia analyst Alastair Lawson

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has left for France on a two-day visit during which she will meet her French counterpart, Jacques Chirac.

President Kumaratunga is also due to have a meeting with Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

It is expected that President Kumaratunga will lobby her hosts to curtail fundraising activities in France by the Tamil Tigers, the Sri Lankan rebel group.

Tamil Tiger activities will be at the top of the agenda

Her visit to France is the culmination of 10 days of hectic diplomatic activity, in which she trying to persuade several western European countries to take action against the Tamil Tigers.

Last week she made official visits to the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium before returning to Sri Lanka.

Her visit to Paris is the second in five years.

Sri Lankan diplomats say it is a measure of the warm relations between the two countries that she should be invited again after so short a period of time.

Officials say that bilateral trade and Colombo's concerns that Paris is being used as a centre for Tamil Tiger fundraising activities will almost certainly be top of President Kumaratunga's agenda.

Sri Lanka hopes that France will follow the lead of Britain and the United States, and either designate the Tamil Tigers as a proscribed organisation or introduce laws to curtail their money raising activities.

The organisation is believed by Sri Lankan diplomats to have a strong presence in Paris, where its support base is second only to London.

President Kumaratunga, who is being accompanied by her foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, meets the French president and prime minister on Wednesday.

Economic issues are also expected to be discussed.

France is the eighth largest importer of Sri Lanka goods such clothing, rubber, tea and jewellery, and it is estimated that bilateral trade between the two countries is worth about $200m.