Issuing a statement the External Affairs Ministry of Sri Lanka said President Rajapaksa has postponed his visit to UK due to several recent foreign travels he had recently and due to his upcoming inauguration ceremony.
President Rajapaksa has had a busy schedule of foreign visits recently to India, the United States of America and China, the Ministry noted.
"There is also the important matter of the inauguration of his second term of office in mid-November, leading to a very busy schedule in Sri Lanka. As such his proposed visit to the United Kingdom at the invitation of the Oxford Union has been postponed, to a more suitable time, and the British authorities so informed," the Ministry said.
President Rajapaksa will be sworn-in for the second term on November 19 at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo.
Certain Indian newspapers yesterday reported that the President cancelled his trip to the fearing arrest under British law for alleged war crimes during Sri Lanka's war against Tamil Tiger rebels.
The External Affairs Ministry expressed regret that the media organizations that carried the news item about the alleged cancellation of the proposed visit by the President to the United Kingdom have done so without any inquiry from the Ministry of External Affairs, the Presidential Secretariat, or the Sri Lanka High Commission in London.
A spokesman for the UK Foreign Office (FCO) has told of UK that they had no indication that concern over universal jurisdiction was the reason behind the postponement of President Rajapaksa's private visit.
"We await confirmation from the Sri Lankan High Commission of future dates for a visit," Channel 4 quoted the FCO spokesman.
President Rajapaksa was reelected for a second term in office at the January 26th Presidential elections. The Government has planned a week-long countrywide celebrations from November 15 to 22 celebrations to commemorate the inauguration of the second term of President.
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