Karunatileka Amunugama – Foreign Secretary – time for you to resign!

The disastrous diplomatic blunder arising from the UN Petrie Report must have consequences. Whilst ultimate responsibility lies with the Foreign Minister for not immediately reacting to it with force, and the SL Ambassador to the UN being sleep at the wheel, it is the External Affairs Ministry, which has the staff, and the various desks within it managed by its CEO, Secretary to the Ministry, Karunatileka Amunugama who should shoulder the blame.

After all if this department was unable to draw attention to the imminent publication of this report by the UN, then someone should pay the price. Kohona has no competent staff, just a bunch of political appointees, to apprise him of this state of affairs, and GL Peiris is too busy being a sycophant, it is up to the Foreign Service to do its homework and advise GL who is now a little senile.

The existence of this report has been in the press for a week. We have yet to hear one word uttered to challenge its contents by the (EAM) External Affairs Ministry, let alone the President. We do not expect the President’s Office or Presidential Secretariat  to be more aware than the Foreign Ministry, so it is yet again the head of this section who must advise his minister to take a stand.

In typical Sri Lanka fashion no one has accepted blame and resigned. It is not the way incompetents in Sri Lanka behave. What can one expect from a bloated bureaucracy, full of yes men, that there is no one who can be referred to as professional? I dare say that many senior foreign service officers including ambassadors in our foreign missions must be embarrassed by the silence from Colombo. There has been NO word to the overseas missions on how to respond to the allegations made in the UN report, which is mainly a self appraisal of the shortcomings within the UN system, but nevertheless clearly refers to the direct complicity of the Sri Lankan Government to the HR allegations, which the Govt. has hitherto to vehemently rejected.

In this instance with no comment, it assumes acceptance of the criticism in a time when the UNHRC has just been reconstituted to a degree, that there will be a damning position taken by the UNHRC in the next March session as it pertains to the promises of the SL Govt. that have not been kept as it relates to the LLRC report recommendations, few of which have been acted upon to date!!

Sri Lanka's friends, China and Russia are no longer in the UNHRC and the US was elected by secret ballot with a record 131 votes. So who says no one gives a damn about the US. Remember a SECRET VOTE. Ravinatha, who did you vote for in behalf of Sri Lanka, I bet it was for the US?

It is time to clean the decks, clear the EAM of dead wood and start afresh. Patriotism is not just a word Mr President to be bandied about for votes. It means something real. Don't abuse it for political gain.