( October 8,
2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Ministry of External Affairs has
embarked on a series of interesting appointments in the recent past.
First it was a
round of Deputy Chiefs of Mission (DCM) in several European capitals,
including, London, The Hague, Oslo and Warsaw (D.S. de Silva). All these
appointees were non-career persons. One of the two career deputies in Sri
Lankan High Commissions, M.R.K. Lenagala in London and M. Colonne in New Delhi
are reported to have opted to return to Colombo and not accept the superfluous
post of DCM in Berlin.
Now come a
series of new ambassadorial appointments. The Presidential media spokesperson
Bandula Jayasekera has been appointed as the Consul General in Sydney with the
rank of Ambassador. One of those in charge of matters during this year’s Geneva
debacle, Mohamed Muthafa Jaffeer has discreetly headed to Oslo unknown to many
in the External Affairs Ministry.
Other changes
include, Ambassador Sarath Wijesinghe moving from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv, Israel
as Ambassador in place of former Air Force Commander/Chief of Defence Staff,
Donald Perera; former IGP Mahinda Balasuriya moving to Abu Dhabi from Brasilia,
which was dubbed as ‘boring’ and ‘far away’ by the former head of police, while
two respected career officers, W. Seneviratne and Sumith Nakandala, take over
in Katmandu and Baghdad respectively.
Interestingly,
the only three ambassadors from the career diplomatic service to serve in
European capitals currently (except Geneva which is dubbed a Permanent Mission
and not an Embassy) are from the Eastern Province: P.M. Amza; A.L.A. Aziz in
Vienna and M.M. Jaffeer in Oslo.
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