On March Threat Geneva: There Is Only One Strategy
By Tamara Kunanayakam -January 24, 2014
Tamara Kunanayakam
On my return to Sri Lanka yesterday after several months outside, I learned with much astonishment about recent media reports claiming that I am engaged in discussions with officials on my re-appointment as PR to Geneva. The falsity of the claim and its malicious character compel me to respond.
The reports refer to instructions given by the President to certain officials to meet and discuss with me arrangements for my re-appointment to Geneva as Permanent Representative to the United Nations. It claims that I have expressed “reservations” “due to short time span between now and the Geneva sessions to be held in March.”
At no time was I contacted or consulted by any Government official on this or on any other matter, related or otherwise, since my departure from the diplomatic service in July 2012.
Even when I was on the frontline in Geneva, and at the best of times, the Ministry of External Affairs chose to ignore me; at the worst, it sought to obstruct me from carrying out my functions! In preparation for the battle, I was severely reprimanded for travelling to Colombo to seek a briefing on the strategy to be adopted at theHuman Rights Council. Afterwards, the Ministry sought no debriefing and no information on my experience in Geneva, my opinion, or my analysis!
The practice of the ruling class to disseminate misleading information for personal gain has resulted in the nation being deluded about the real threats and their origin, so that its destiny is slowly slipping away from democratic control and being transferred to external forces.
We are on the brink of overt external intervention today and unilateral sanctions that will primarily affect the ordinary citizen, because those in positions of responsibility have failed to draw the political lessons from the strategy of defeat adopted by certain important members of the Sri Lankan delegation to the Human Rights Council in March 2012 and the ensuing debacle. A betrayal from within the ranks transformed a near victory into an overnight defeat. Read More
