Geneva: What went wrong; is damage control possible?
By Our Political Editor-Sunday, March 23, 2014
Crucial vote on Thursday, Pillay will act within days to appoint international probe team once resolution is passed President tells Peiris to be cautious about statements after dangerous blunder on Ukraine issue
President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday cautioned External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris over the release of media statements on important foreign policy issues without proper scrutiny. He said they should be examined carefully before being made public.
The move was prompted by an External Affairs Ministry statement personally initiated by Peiris. It was over the crisis in Ukraine where Russia later ended up annexing the Crimean peninsula. Moscow claimed that 98 per cent of the population who cast their votes in a referendum had chosen to join the Russian Federation. After the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine remained a sovereign state with the Crimean peninsula within its national boundary.
