Rajapaksa-style absurdities by ambassador in Germany Amunugama
Tuesday, 24 March 2015
The main reason for Sri Lanka’s international isolation in recent times was the tit-for-tat Medamulana foreign policy of the Rajapaksa regime. As a result, the mere mention of Sri Lanka left many faces soured.
When the new government assumed office, it gave a promise that dealings with the international community would be carried out in a friendly and professional manner. Accordingly, many changes were brought about in the Foreign Service. Despite such action by the ‘Yaha Paalana’ regime, Sri Lankan ambassador in Germany Karunatilake Amunugama is still following a Medamulana Rajapaksa style foreign policy, according to reports reaching us.
A group of human rights activists in Germany, including World Fisheries Solidarity chief Herman Kumara, raised awareness among German tourists visiting Sri Lanka to boycott, on humanitarian grounds, the hotels being run in civilian-owned land seized by the military in the north on the orders of the Rajapaksa regime. Due to the success of this programme, the Rajapaksa regime has had an extreme hatred against these HR activists.
After the change in government, Herman Kumara and other HR activists recently went to meet the ambassador at the Sri Lankan embassy in Berlin, but the ambassador had behaved liked a drunken thug.
He had abused the group, using the words in Wimal Weerawansa’s dictionary and accusing them of being betrayers in cohort of NGOs and dollar hungry traitors. This is a clear example that the Rajapaksa-style Foreign Service is still there despite the change in government.
Veteran diplomats told us that this shows that the Rajapaksa culture has not ended, as the Sri Lankan ambassador in Geneva Ravinatha Aryasinha had a cordial discussion with the group, while persons like Amunugama who were taken out of the Administrative Service to serve in the Foreign Service behave in this manner.
His Excellency the ambassador in Kathmandu
A similar ambassador in the Rajapaksa-style is stationed at Kathmandu, Nepal. Even the president has done away with his being called His Excellency, but this ambassador still calls himself His Excellency.
The most recent example came in a letter given to a group of journalists who had gone to meet him.
