The Sri Lankan External Affairs Ministry rejected the charges made by the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute that it had denied its officials visas to visit the island as “an attempt to sully the image of Sri Lanka”.

The Ministry said the visa applications were made for a seminar organised by IBAHRI and the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, and it was due to the failure of the organisers to follow due process of hosting such an event that it was unable to facilitate the visas.

“The organisers of this event had not followed the due process of obtaining concurrence of the Ministry of External Affairs with regard to hosting of seminars/conferences with international participation. A request for concurrence should set out briefly the objectives of the event, a list of participating States/Organisations and any assistance required to be given from the Ministry of External Affairs by way of facilitating visas, protocol assistance etc.,” a statement by the ministry said.

The statement further said, that the ministry had informed the Sri Lankan High Commission in London that it had “embargoed” such events during the Commonwealth summit, as all required resources would be utilised.

“During this period all the required resources will be fully utilised, resulting in practical difficulties in the conduct of any events with international participation, particularly with regard to the security and logistical aspects [...] It was further informed to the Sri Lanka High Commission in London that a decision had been taken to embargo the scheduling of visits and such events, during the period 20th October - 20th November 2013.“

“It is therefore evident that the requirement of visas to visit Sri Lanka did not arise, as there was no necessity since the event could not be scheduled, due to the stated circumstances. It is abundantly clear that the organisers had the option of rescheduling their event outside this timeframe.”