Sajin Vass Gunawardena who is known as the Baggage Boy among the family members of the ruling family said that when he returns to Colombo, he would take steps to immediately bring the NGO Secretariat under the Ministry of External Affairs which is now comes under the Ministry of Defence. The report published by the Sunday Times, Colombo is follows;
( March 30, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It was the External Affairs Ministry’s monitoring MP, Sajin de Vass Gunawardena, who literally ran the Sri Lanka show when the 25th UN Human Rights Council sessions were under way.
External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris, designated the Sri Lanka delegation leader, was there only for his opening address to the high level segment. Ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva and Mahinda Samarasinghe were only assigned the task of speaking to regional groups.
During the sessions, Sri Lanka delegation members heard how Mr. de Vass Gunawardena was upset about the many NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) and INGOs (International Non-Governmental Organisations) which were busy mustering support for the US-backed resolution on Sri Lanka.
He made many calls to VIPs in Colombo to complain and lamented to delegates about what he called the shortcoming. That was not all. He said that when he returns to Colombo, he would take steps to immediately bring the NGO Secretariat under the Ministry of External Affairs. That would help him to get pro-Sri Lankan NGOs to Geneva the next time.
The NGO Secretariat now comes under the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development.
Mr. de Vass Gunawardena also played the master of ceremonies at a reception Ravinatha Aryasinha, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, hosted at a reception centre. The catering order went to a Chinese owned company run by a husband and wife combination. The MP invited the male counterpart to visit Sri Lanka and see the beauty and joked that even girls were beautiful.
Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York Palitha Kohona and Deputy Labour Minister Sarath Weerasekera were also in Geneva. The latter had gone there earlier to attend an International Labour Organisation (ILO) event.
