Tamara has to perform better than Dayan as the things have gone from bad to worst against Sri Lanka’s image after the infamous Channel 4 fake film clip which the gullible west is banking on as a proof of war crimes and the Darusman Report (not a UN report. Even SG Ban-ki-Moon doesn’t want to proceed further on this report). Will she or can she perform fearlessly as we will have to accept the fact that the Tamil Diaspora’s propaganda is very strong in Switzerland and other EU Countries in influencing the gullible. She may have to expect some aggressive demonstrations by the LTTE rump opposite UN Office in Geneva. Can she deliver the goods the way Sri Lankan Governments expects?
by Malin Abeyatunge
(August 19, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) We have no qualms of the appointment of Ms Tamara Kunanayakam as Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva. Do we? May be she will join the caliber of our gentleman Politician late Lakshman Kadirgamar. However, having observed and experienced the biased attitudes towards LTTE by a Tamil Sri Lankan Radhika Coomaraswamy holding one of the UNO top positions, Sri Lankans at large will be little more skeptical of this appointment to that prestigious position at a crucial time which is a life and death situation for Sri Lanka. It is crucial because there is open conspiracy by the west at the next UNHRC session in September to drag Sri Lanka to the war crime gallows. The government strategy (if there is) will be successful only if she acts as a Sri Lankan but not as a Tamil. It was Dr. Dayan Jayatilake and his efficient colleagues who saved Sri Lanka at the last session from another catastrophe on a venomous campaign launched against Sri Lanka by the west. Tamara has to perform better than Dayan as the things have gone from bad to worst against Sri Lanka’s image after the infamous Channel 4 fake film clip which the gullible west is banking on as a proof of war crimes and the Darusman Report (not a UN report. Even SG Ban-ki-Moon doesn’t want to proceed further on this report). Will she or can she perform fearlessly as we will have to accept the fact that the Tamil Diaspora’s propaganda is very strong in Switzerland and other EU Countries in influencing the gullible. She may have to expect some aggressive demonstrations by the LTTE rump opposite UN Office in Geneva. Can she deliver the goods the way Sri Lankan Governments expects?
I would like to recall during the 1983 riots, except in UK, the embassies and the high commissions in rest of the western world were manned by Tamil ambassadors and high commissioners. They did not find difficult to convince the diplomats, government authorities and the politicians in the countries they were domiciled that there is discrimination and racism against the Tamils in Sri Lanka by the majority Sinhalese. A simple question they would have asked these ambassadors, High Commissioners and the Tamil staff in these offices is that how come they are here as Sri Lankan Reps if there was any discrimination against the Tamils. After 1983, they developed an everlasting rapport with those governments against Sri Lanka in support of the Tamils Diaspora and has been continued to this date. It is difficult to break the ice and these countries continue to support the LTTE supportive Tamil Diaspora albeit LTTE is a banned terrorist outfit. I would quote two recent examples from UK which is a safe haven for the LTTE terrorists and now the LTTE rump. One is that British PM David Cameron attending Global Tamil Forum seminar against Sri Lanka and the other is UNSG Ban-ki-Moon posing for a photo with British Tamil Forum (BTF) spokesperson Suresh Premachandran. Both these organizations have been funding the LTTE war machine under dubious fronts. Whilst supporting the LTTE terrorists in the past and the LTTE rump now, David Cameron and his cabinet has introduced draconian laws to deal with the promoters of the recent riots. In the same tone, Britain has been pressuring the successive Sri Lankan Governments over the years to withdraw the Emergency regulations. Isn’t it double standard?
Will Tamara maintain her integrity in dealing with Sri Lankan issues in the UN? Take the case f Radhika Coomaraswamy a Tamil woman who was appointed to a top position in the UNO by her friend then President Chandrika Bandaranayake. It is not a secret that Radhika Coomaraswamy has been appeasing and defending LTTE ( keeping mum without taking any action when LTTE continued to conscript child soldiers) right thro out until the LTTE was defeated militarily. Take the case of Navi Pillai another Tamil woman of Indian Origin from South Africa. Her actions, attitudes and various statements attribute to support the LTTE terrorist outfit so much so she is also devastated by the defeat of her favorite baby LTTE, she launched a venomous campaign in the UNHRC bashing Sri Lanka calling for war crimes as an act of revenge. Isn’t that a case of “blood is thicker than water”?. So am I wrong being skeptical of the appointment of Tamara Kunanayakam to that prestigious and very important position specially at a crucial time when the west has conspired and all out to bash Sri Lanka for war crimes. Tamara has a Herculean task ahead in handling the very powerful LTTE supportive Tamil Diaspora widely spread in Switzerland and the neighboring EU countries. Will she be tough enough to tell the Sri Lankan truth at the next UNHRC session without facing resistance from the Tamil Diaspora? She has represented Sri Lanka in countries like Cuba and Brazil which there were no big presence of Tamil Diaspora. So she has to show her metal to safeguard the Sri Lanka Government from brickbats that will be thrown by the west.
We have already seen two stooges in the UN supporting LTTE and currently the LTTE rump and hope that Tamara will not join the clan to make it “three” to prove “birds of a feather flock together”.
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