At a time when the Sri Lanka Mission to the United Nations should be gearing itself to battle Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his panel of experts who are threatening to probe war crimes, the office is in turmoil with sniping, backstabbing and charges of sexual harassment.
Less than a month after he was appointed, Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative Bandula Jayasekera, a former editor of the Daily News, has been unceremoniously recalled to Colombo. A similar fate befell Jayasekera's predecessor, Suresh Chandra, who was also recalled in less than six months after his appointment. Both were political appointees.
"That place is a mad house,"' says an External Affairs Ministry official who once served in New York. "There is a stream of complaints, petitions and anonymous letters coming to the Ministry every week. The right thing to do is to clean up the place by transferring every one of them out of New York -- at least for the greater good of the country." The inmates have obviously taken over the asylum -- Angoda-style, he added.
The complaints are heavily weighted against a junior diplomat who claims to have the right political connections in the Presidential Secretariat and is accused of ''terrorizing'' the mission staff, both diplomatic and non-diplomatic.
According to reports reaching the ministry, she has openly threatened to politically engineer the transfer of any diplomat, junior or senior, if he or she crosses her path. In addition, she has kept to her word triggering a widespread sense of fear in the Mission.
Meanwhile, Jayasekera was not given any official reasons for his recall. A senior official of the ministry informed him of his transfer over the phone last week apparently assuring him a higher political appointment when he returns to Colombo. Whether this is a consolation prize or not remains to be seen.
sundaytimes lk
Less than a month after he was appointed, Sri Lanka's Deputy Permanent Representative Bandula Jayasekera, a former editor of the Daily News, has been unceremoniously recalled to Colombo. A similar fate befell Jayasekera's predecessor, Suresh Chandra, who was also recalled in less than six months after his appointment. Both were political appointees.
"That place is a mad house,"' says an External Affairs Ministry official who once served in New York. "There is a stream of complaints, petitions and anonymous letters coming to the Ministry every week. The right thing to do is to clean up the place by transferring every one of them out of New York -- at least for the greater good of the country." The inmates have obviously taken over the asylum -- Angoda-style, he added.
The complaints are heavily weighted against a junior diplomat who claims to have the right political connections in the Presidential Secretariat and is accused of ''terrorizing'' the mission staff, both diplomatic and non-diplomatic.
According to reports reaching the ministry, she has openly threatened to politically engineer the transfer of any diplomat, junior or senior, if he or she crosses her path. In addition, she has kept to her word triggering a widespread sense of fear in the Mission.
Meanwhile, Jayasekera was not given any official reasons for his recall. A senior official of the ministry informed him of his transfer over the phone last week apparently assuring him a higher political appointment when he returns to Colombo. Whether this is a consolation prize or not remains to be seen.
sundaytimes lk
