German Ambassador in Sri Lanka reprimanded

By Rajini Kumarasamy from Hamburg

(January 15, Hamburg, Sri Lanka Guardian) According to media reports in Germany and Sri Lanka the German ambassador in Colombo Mr Jürgen Weerth has been censured by the Sri Lankan government for holding a eulogy at the funeral of the murdered newspaper editor critical of the island’s government.

This has been confirmed by the German Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

Diplomat Jürgen Weerth was officially reprimanded by the Foreign Office in Colombo on Monday for his public remarks about Lasantha Wickrematunge.

Ambassador Weerth is the dean of Colombo-based diplomats. Mr. Weerth in his brief eulogy said that the diplomats had failed to speak out earlier in support of media freedom in Sri Lanka.

Weerth said at the funeral Monday "Today is a day when one remains speechless. Maybe we should have spoken before this. Today it is too late. Today is a day when humanity has lost a major voice of truth. But he will live in his work."

A foreign ministry official in Colombo declining to give his name said „Weerth was summoned to the foreign ministry on Tuesday and the Foreign Secretary Dr.Palitha Kohona expressed Sri Lankan Government’s serious displeasure and concern over his remarks,".

Further he said the government felt that the Editor’s funeral had been turned into a political event. There was no one available for a comment from the German embassy in Colombo.

Although Weerth’s eulogy angered Sri Lanka’s government, the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson in Berlin Elmar Erich says the ambassador has not overstepped his bounds or makes a political statement. “The chosen tone was adequate and it was an appropriate sign of solidarity,” he added.

Speaking this writer on the phone, a number of Ambassadors in Colombo denies that Weerth was assigned to speak on behalf of the Colombo based diplomats. One Foreign ambassador in Colombo said “Why is weerth not making any comments when LTTE kills someone ? Many of us know that he hates the President Rajapakse. Weerth has been making insulting comments at President Rajapakse even during his Presidential campaign”. The content of this statement is been re-comfirmed by a former german aid worker from Bonn who was stationed in Sri Lanka working for the german organisation “Help”.

Speaking on anonymity a former German diplomat who worked in Sri Lanka for 3 years, now living in Frankurt contradicts the foreign ministry spokesmen Mr. Erich. He says that Ambassador Weerth has over stepped his guidelines as a diplomat. According to him it is not the Sri Lankan Govenment that should warn Weerth but Foreign Minister Steinmeier him self.

A reliable German source from Weligama Sri Lanka confirms this writer that Mr. Wickramatunga was a close associate of the German Ambassador and the head of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Colombo.

Lasantha Wickramatunga has been an unofficial consultant to both of them on many political issues. The source further says the anti government sinhala website mirisa is a concept of Lasantha Wickramatunga on the request of German Ambassador, financed by the german political foundation, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Colombo 7. The head of this foundation is a die hard supporter of Ranil Wickramasinghe.

Although the opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe has accused the Sri Lankan government have murdered Lasantha Wickramatunga, the pensioned German diplomat in Bonn says “why would President Mahinda Rajapakse government do such a thing at the height of his popularity in the country right now? We know that his government is not very popular with the donor countries and the EU. So why should he do something to make it worse? The human rights organisations have been accusing him of violations all along. So why should he do something to play in to their hands and get more isolated?There is no logic to such accusations in my opinion.

And I have been observing Ambassador Weerth’s behaviour for some time now. It’s disgrace for all German Carrier diplomats”.

President Mahinda Rajapakse has strongly denied any government involvement and told Colombo-based foreign correspondents on Monday that he was determined to bring the killers to justice. - Sri Lanka Guardian