During his visit Mr Hume had meetings with H.E. The President; the Hon. Prime Minister, Mr Ranil Wickremesinghe; and Mr G L Peiris. He met a multi party group of Members of Parliament and addressed an invited audience at the Sri Lanka Institute for International Relations. Mr Hume also travelled to Kilinochchi for a meeting with the LTTE leadership. Throughout his visit the British High Commissioner, H.E Mr Stephen Evans, and the Irish Ambassador, HE Mr Philip McDonagh, accompanied Mr Hume.

A former teacher, Mr Hume first came to prominence through the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s. He has been one of the driving figures behind many of the significant attempts to resolve the Northern Ireland problem over the past 30 years, and together with Mr David Trimble, was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1998.