The Revolting Diplomat
May 13, 2012 By Sanjana Hattotuwa -
Sanjana Hattotuwa
“You will recall that my instructions were to be in Geneva on time to handle the 18th Session of the Council in September 2011. However, vital information on a US initiative calling for an interactive dialogue on Sri Lanka was withheld from me. It was only fortuitously, and only 5 weeks before the Session opened, that I discovered that this information had been communicated, as early as June 2011, to the private email address of my predecessor in Geneva by the US Ambassador. After that, an email exchange had taken place on the subject, unknown to the Ministry of External Affairs. Had this information remained a secret, we would not have had the time to counter the initiative and a resolution against Sri Lanka would have been inevitable, placing the country on the Council’s agenda for me to deal with, along with its fail out, from almost Day One of my assuming duties in Geneva. In preparation for that 18th Session, no instructions were received by me nor guidelines provided on the strategy to be adopted, and no response was forthcoming on my own proposal. My urgent request for authorization to travel to Colombo for consultations on the matter was first verbally approved by you and then denied by the Ministry of External Affairs, leaving me with no other option but to travel without authorization, given the gravity. The question of strategy, however, remained unanswered and l had to wade my way through that Session. Similar strategies seemed to have been adopted once more at the 19th Session in an attempt to withhold information on crucial matters and to isolate me from my own staff at the Mission…. What was true for the 18th and 19th Sessions of the Council continues to be true for preparations for the forthcoming Session, and Sri Lanka’s UPR in November 2012.” – Excerpts from letter to Sri Lanka’s Minister of External Affairs, G.L. Peiris by Tamara Kunanayakam. Emphasis mine.