Lapses in summit security arrangements embarrass host
India’s National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan was in for a rude shock yesterday. He was chauffeur driven from his hotel, the Taj Samudra, at Galle Face, to the BMICH for the opening sessions of the SAARC summit. There were security escorts to accompany the senior official, who is widely regarded, by virtue of his official position, as a high-profile target. He arrived at the main entrance to the conference hall, and was received and ushered to his seat.
When the sessions were over, and after the South Asian leaders had already left for their hotels, Mr. Narayanan was still standing at the entrance of the BMICH, waiting for his car and the security escort vehicles to arrive. But no car or vehicles turned up. He then approached a taxi with the Taj Samudra name and logo on it which had transported someone else to the conference venue, and persuaded the driver to take him back to the hotel.
Although the roads were closed for other traffic, the vehicle, with the Taj Samudra logo on its doors, managed to make it back to the hotel. However, India’s National Security Adviser was forced to travel without any security. Needless to say, the serious lapse has displeased both the Indian officials and those in the Indian High Commission in Colombo.
Security at the BMICH, the conference venue, and all motorcades travelling to and from the BMICH, come under the scrutiny of the Presidential Security Division (PSD). Many weeks ahead of the conference, the PSD were tasked with planning and co-ordinating the duties assigned to them. “Evidently someone did not do his job properly,” an exasperated Foreign Ministry official who learnt of the incident told The Sunday Times.
Deputy Inspector General S. M. Wickremasinghe who is in charge of the PSD, met Mr. Narayanan later yesterday to extend an apology on behalf of his organisation.
A similar lapse occurred when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived at the Presidential Secretariat for talks with President Mahinda Rajapaksa. When the talks ended, and the Indian Premier was about to board his official limousine to return to his hotel, the Personal Security Officer assigned to him was missing. Noticing this, a member of the Indian premier’s Special Protection Group (SPG), hurriedly jumped into the front seat.
It was later discovered that the PSO, a Senior Superintendent of Police attached to the Special Task Force (STF), had arrived at the spot only after Dr. Singh’s car had left. Although he had escorted the Indian Premier from his hotel, the Sri Lankan PSO had reportedly been missing. President Rajapaksa yesterday ordered a full inquiry into the incident.
Yet another summit gaffe was reported. The wife of Speaker W. J. M. Loku Bandara had to give up her seat in the first row at yesterday’s inaugural of the summit. This was to make way for Opposition UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. He had earlier been assigned a seat in row five. Seated next to him was a Moulavi or Muslim cleric.
This was whilst former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who has the record for the longest-serving SAARC chairperson, was given a seat in row three. Political sources pointed out that, according to the Precedence Table, a former President comes next to the serving President, and even before the Prime Minister. After some discussion, the former President was given a seat in the front row, but that was the last seat in the left extreme of the row.
A board with the words HON. CABINET MINISTERS was hung on the front-row chairs, but with so many Cabinet Ministers present, they were seen sitting all over the place. The seating arrangements were handled by the Foreign Ministry.
Foreign Minister's daughter sits in at SAARC Ministers meeting
Sri Lanka created a diplomatic stir last week when Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama's daughter Dilshani sat in on the SAARC Council of Ministers meeting in violation of diplomatic protocol.
The Council of Ministers meeting was held at the VIP room in the BMICH Thursday, July 31.
The Sunday Leader learns the Minister's daughter had walked into the meeting and sat behind the Sri Lankan delegation leading to muffled protests from diplomats of member nations.
Informed sources said prior to the commencement of the Council of Ministers meeting in the VIP room, there were several heads of mission present and were requested to leave the room by the protocol division of the Foreign Ministry.
However, the sources said the Minister's daughter had continued to sit in on the confidential meeting without being asked to leave.
It is learned some diplomats who were asked to leave the room in keeping with protocol had protested over the incident.
The Sunday Leader also learns the Minister's son Dakshitha had also participated at some of the other official meetings but was not present at the Council of Minister's meeting.
Protocol disaster at SAARC ceremony
By Dilrukshi Handunnetti
There is no disputing the fact that the BMICH appeared impressive in all its splendour, the beautifully created stage and the head table, the expensive flowers and the ambience adding to the wholesome picture to the unsuspecting eye. But all of the above did not manage to conceal the truth that the SAARC summit inauguration ceremony failed to reach the mark in event management.
The far from perfect event to start with, the SAARC seating arrangement was one huge mess and an abysmal failure in protocol. Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga was not ushered to an allotted seat and was first relegated to the third row when someone had the good sense to gently move her to a front row seat.
Causing a regional embarrassment, the first ladies were ushered into the main hall, minutes before the sessions commenced, but were made to stand and wait until seats were sorted. There was Mrs. Manmohan Singh showing an empty chair in the second row and they had to queue up and wait until a chair was indicated.
Much earlier, an unescorted Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe occupied a fifth row seat until an embarrassed Chief Government Whip and Minister Dinesh Gunawardene and Minister Mano Wijeratne personally ushered Wickremesinghe to the front row.
Early bird ministers Dr. Sarath Amunugama and Gamini Lokuge were seen looking for their seats in an uncertain manner and finally they had to decide on their own seats.
Some flags were messed up with the reporters from the respective countries opposing the colours used on their national flags, alleging that the green shade on the Bangladeshi flag and the orange colour on the Indian flag being inaccurate!
Besides, the car park too had been a mess with all cars excluding the heads of state and diplomats being parked together in a jumble.
As for the long suffering journalists who were transported as early as 6.45 a.m. for a 10 a.m. event under tight security were inconvenienced when officials requested that the front row be cleared for foreign camera crews, two hours after they were settled in their seats.
Then there were hundreds of local journalists who could not do their coverage properly due to the lack of simultaneous interpretation of the speeches made, a far cry from SAARC summit experiences anywhere else.
Adding insult to injury, journalists were surprised to find former parliamentarian Somakumari Tennakoon happily settled in the media gallery.
The media center too turned out to be a nightmare with internet getting disconnected every half hour making scribes lose their typed copies and lens men unable to mail their photographs.
Also, there were attempts by the Foreign Ministry to rewrite history in flawed English. Brief documentaries on member countries were shown on wide screen as each head of state arrived and interestingly, the documentary on Sri Lanka claimed that Sri Lanka had a population of two billion!
The documentary on Afghanistan was no better. In raw English, the documentary noted “America and its allies came looking for Osama Bin Laden.”
To cap it all, while the invitation cards said the ceremony would start at 10 a.m., President Mahinda Rajapakse made his entry shortly after 11 a.m.
City hoteliers’ loss tops Rs. 100 million
By Ashwin Hemmathagama
City hoteliers have incurred an estimated loss over Rs. 100 million during the last 10 days, due to the unexpected arrangements made by the Sri Lankan Government in hosting the 15th SAARC summit in Colombo.
Sri Lanka, now well-known for sudden closure of roads citing national security, and for adopting stringent traffic control to make room for VIP movements, has also managed a serious blow to its struggling tourism industry as well. LAKBIMAnEWS talking to key tourist hoteliers located in the heart of Colombo learns that weddings, conferences, meetings and private parties which were booked well in advance for the period from July 26 to August 4 were cancelled, creating chaos and causing considerable financial loss.
According to reliable sources, Ceylon Continental Hotel which is located in a high security zone just next to the Central Bank and the President’s House, has been badly affected. “Our occupancy has gone down very seriously since July 26th. All functions including weddings were cancelled and we had to make full refunds.
The foreign guests who were to leave to the airport faced severe problems due to haphazard road closure time-tables... We believe our loss would exceed Rs. 30 million by tomorrow,” the source stated. faced a loss of 20 million,” confirmed a source in Galadari Hotels (Lanka) PLC.
Heartbreak over heartless security
By Isuri Kaviratne
A woman died after suffering a heart attack last Sunday due to inaccessibility to emergency treatment, as a result of the SAARC rehearsal traffic arrangements, the victim’s family claims.
Sixty-four year-old Mary Pearl Jayatillaka, from Alwiswatta Wattala had suffered heart problems around 3.30 p.m. and family members including her daughter Nirmala Silva had tried to rush her to the closest hospital, Ragama Hospital when they got caught to the closure of the Negombo-Katunayake Road. They had been compelled to stop at three different road blocks in Wattala and all attempts at pleading with the police to allow them to cross the Negombo road had failed
“My mother never cried. This was the only day we saw her cry,” Niramala said, going on to explain the tragedy that unfolded right before her eyes. She said they had attempted to cross the road at three points, Bunt Road, Hendala Road junction and Alwis town junction, but could not do so because of security barriers.
“We didn’t want to go along the Negombo Road. We just wanted to cross to the other side to so that we could get to the hospital through various short cuts,” Nirmala said, adding that neither pleading nor arguing with the Police worked to just cross about 15-20 meters of the road to get to the other side.
“It would have taken a maximum of two minutes to cross the road in the vehicle and thereafter there are several shortcut routes to reach Ragama hospital,” he said.
“My mother was pleading with us to take her to a doctor but we couldn’t do that,” a tearful Nirmala said. She said they didn’t have the option of even channeling a doctor in the area as the doctors came to channeling centres only after 5 p.m. She said, eventually after going through the most desperate 45 minutes of their lives, they found a doctor. However at the Kelawarapitiya Junction. As soon as she was taken there, Nirmala’s mother had been given treatment but it had been too late. “My mother fell at my feet unconscious, after suffering for nearly an hour,” Nirmala said. On the doctor’s instructions, she was rushed to Ragama hospital, by which time the roads had been opened, but it was too late.
“I have a sister who is a nurse. We know most of the doctors in Ragama hospital. But still we couldn’t take my mother there on time. The doctors there said if we had brought her even 10 minutes earlier there would have been a good chance of saving her,” Nirmala said. She charged that the policemen at the checkpoints didn’t even bother to check how serious her mother’s condition was before disallowing them to cross the road. She said that the government while providing security to foreign delegates had not taken any measures to serve the public in emergencies. “No child would want their mother to die like the way she did,” Nirmala said. “She was a kind and healthy woman and she died in vain because she was an ordinary citizen in this country and not a VIP or the mother of a VIP,” she said. Worst still she said they were so helpless and couldn’t do anything that Sunday. She added that in an attempt to protect someone else’s life, her mother’s life was ultimately sacrificed.
SAARC comes alive amid dead city
* Uncertainty over traffic arrangement keeps people away from work
* Lottery sellers, three wheeler drivers hit by drop in sales and hires
By Madhushala Senaratne
The 15th SAARC summit being held in Colombo under the theme, ‘SAARC partnership for people’ appears to be driving the public further away from it, with security concerns and attempts to build a clean city image causing inconvenience to the public.
Most people opted to stay away from the city during the past few days with traffic into the city dropping from last Monday, while those who came into the city experienced long traffic blocks and sudden diversions.
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