Visiting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for an early political settlement to Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict and warned that history could repeat itself, dpa reported. His comments came during a press conference in Colombo at the end of one-day visit in which he visited refugee camps in northern Sri Lanka where some 300,000 people are being accommodated. He also flew over some of the areas which was worst affected by the fighting between government troops and Tamil rebels. The government should take steps to build confidence among the minorities and address issue of minorities, he said. The UN chief called for unimpeded access to UN and international non-governmental organisations to refugee camps in the north. He said that during his visit to the camps in Vavuniya, displaced persons had handed him letters saying they lacked freedom of movement, faced food and medicine shortages. The UN delegation flew over an area where the final rounds of fighting took place between troops and rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Ban to said he had been "saddened" by the sight of the region, where more than 200,000 civilians were caught up in the fighting as the rebels refused to permit civilians to leave. The UN chief also met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Kandy, east of Colombo in central Sri Lanka, where Rajapaksa was taking part in a celebration to mark the end of the war. The president on Tuesday declared that the Tamil rebels had been defeated after 25 years of fighting. The senior leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, including top commander Velupillai Prabhakaran, were all killed in combat.
