{"id":40906,"date":"2012-05-09T14:48:53","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T14:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=40906"},"modified":"2012-05-09T14:53:59","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T14:53:59","slug":"sri-lankan-un-ambassador-tamara-kunanayakam-demoted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankan-un-ambassador-tamara-kunanayakam-demoted\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan UN Ambassador Tamara Kunanayakam Demoted"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Charles Haviland\/\u00a0BBC News, Colombo –<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan government has demoted its ambassador to the UN in Geneva after the Human Rights Council adopted a motion critical of the country.<\/p>\n

Tamara Kunanayakam – one of the few Sri Lankan ambassadors who are Tamil – has been reappointed as the envoy to Cuba, a post she vacated nine months ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Tamara Kunanayakam<\/p><\/div>\n

She will be removed from the Geneva post in July despite expressing strong wishes to stay in the job.<\/p>\n

The transfer comes amid reports of divisions within the foreign ministry.<\/p>\n

A senior official said her transfer back to Cuba was a routine matter and had nothing to do with the UN motion.<\/p>\n

But it coincides with the emergence of an apparent rift in the foreign ministry, with one presidential adviser warning of “destructive elements” at work.<\/p>\n

Ms Kunanayakam had been in the post just nine months and her removal means Sri Lanka will have had four Geneva ambassadors in the space of three years.<\/p>\n

In a letter to the foreign minister on 1 May – and in subsequent media interviews – Ms Kunanayaka said she had loyally carried out the instructions of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n

Ironically, she said the president had ruled out reappointing her to a previous posting like Cuba as this “would be interpreted as a demotion”.<\/p>\n

“Removing one of the very few Tamils heading diplomatic missions abroad will allow questioning of the government’s commitment to reconciliation,” she said.<\/p>\n

Furthermore it would “reinforce extremist elements on all sides”.<\/p>\n

She told BBC Sinhala she totally rejected being removed from her current post, which she said would heighten perceptions of ethnic tensions.<\/p>\n

“We will fall into the hands of those who say there is a conflict between Sinhala and Tamil.”<\/p>\n

In 2009 the Sri Lankan government defeated Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate homeland in the country after 26 years of civil war.<\/p>\n

‘Completely routine’<\/p>\n

Foreign ministry secretary Karunatilaka Amunugama told the BBC that Ms Kunanayakam was only expressing her personal views.<\/p>\n

“It’s not a question of someone being happy or unhappy but having the best people for the right places,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Amunugama insisted that her nine-month stay in the post and reappointment to her previous position were completely routine and had nothing to do with the Geneva human rights vote.<\/p>\n

The transfer was decreed by the president on the recommendation of the minister of external affairs, he said.<\/p>\n

Ms Kunanaykam has been a stalwart advocate of the government’s position, defending its human rights record and the divisions may be centred around personalities and factions rather than around ideology or doctrine.<\/p>\n

Last month another senior diplomat, the ambassador to France, Dayan Jayatilleka, said he was “indignant and outraged” after a senior foreign ministry official wrote a letter threatening to charge him under Sri Lanka’s penal code.<\/p>\n

Reports said he was accused of minor extravagances on the government’s account, including the repainting of the embassy and hotel accommodation for a newly arrived colleague.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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