The Official Residence Of SL’s High Commissioner To Geneva Was Under Surveillance: Tamara
October 17, 2014
Sri Lanka’s former High Commissioner to Geneva, Tamara Kunanayakam says the official residence of the High Commissioner in Geneva was being surveilled by a group linked with the LTTE.
Tamara Kunanayakam
Ambassador Kunanayakam made these remarks in an interview with Newsfirst where she said that her suspicions were aroused following an audit that was carried out on the renovations done in the High Commission residence just before she was posted to Geneva.
She states the audit revealed the company, which carried out the renovations was headed by a group that had earlier been arrested by the Swiss for engaging in LTTE activities. “I found that the estimates given for the contract were totally wrong,” she adds.
She goes on to state these fears prompted her to request the Swiss Police to check for any electronic material such as microphones within the residence. However, the police had declined the request as it was an extraterritorial matter.
“That is why I then asked the government to probe into the matter – not only because of my own security but because this is the official residence of the representatives of Sri Lanka. If there were microphones and we were being watched, the LTTE would know exactly what we were going to do,” she explained.
Meanwhile, concurring with comments made by Professor Rajiva Wijesinha and Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka on a concerted effort that is being carried out to oust loyal and efficient diplomats from the foreign service, Kunanayakam says she too was a victim of that scheme. She says she was recalled due to pressure by current Secretary to the External Affairs Ministry Kshenuka Senewiratne and the Monitoring MP of the ministry, Sajin de Vass Gunewardena.
“I have known diplomats who have been recalled and punished because of helping me when in fact they were only doing their job,”she added.
She says that it is because they became obstacles to the personal interests of certain individuals and adds that although career diplomats were subjected to similar injustices, their plight was highlighted more since they were political appointees.
“The state itself has been hijacked by a group – a cartel, interested in promoting their own interests,” she added.
Furthermore she had stated the slapping incident involving former Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the UKChris Nonis and Sajin Vass has reflected on the dysfunctional state of the institutions. She adds that if a genuine effort was to be made in investigating the incident, the course of action to have been followed initially was to suspend the person in question and thereafter carry out the probe.
