Colombo, October 4:

Sri Lanka has called for the expulsion of an Icelandic diplomat who made a clandestine visit to the Tamil Tiger-held north of the island.

Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry said it asked Reykjavik to recall Bjarni Vestmann, a minister-counsellor at Iceland’s foreign ministry, after he entered the country on a tourist visa and went to the north to meet rebels.

“The (Sri Lankan foreign) minister strongly protested the action of Vestmann and requested his immediate recall,” a ministry statement said.

Foreigners and journalists are not allowed to enter territory held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam without government permission. The diplomat, however, had managed to get a ride with Scandinavian truce monitors, the ministry said.

It said it had also lodged a protest with the Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) for transporting the diplomat.

There was no immediate comment from the SLMM or Vestmann.