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By D.B.S. Jeyaraj

The diplomatic tussle between Ottawa and Colombo over the appointment of a new Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Canada has ended satisfactorily said diplomatic sources yesterday. The Sri Lankan foreign ministry announced formally on Tuesday May 9th that former presidential secretary W.J.S. Karunaratne is the new envoy to Canada .He is expected to assume duties shortly. Canada too is expected to appoint a new High Commissioner to Sri Lanka in June. With the appointment of new high Commissioners the diplomatic tensions between both countries on this issue will be a thing of the past.

The problem began when former President Chandrika Kumaratunga designated her former defence secretary Chandrananda de Silva as the new High Commissioner to Ottawa.He was to replace career diplomat Geetha de Silva who assumed duties as additional secretary at the Foreign Affairs ministry. Geetha de Silva had performed her duties efficiently as High Commissioner for four years.

Nominating Chandrananda de Silva like that of ex – presidential secretary Kusumsiri Balapatabendi to Australia was a political appointment. Kumaratunga at the tail end of her tenure seemed to be rewarding her loyalists with top diplomatic assignments. Lakshman Kadirgamar was foreign minister when De Silva was designated.

The appointment to Canada had been made without taking into account some changes in Canadian laws after June 2002.A strict interpretation of these laws made certain class of persons inadmissible to Canada on account of their alleged links to terrorism as well as crimes against humanity and war crimes.

In the case of Chandrananda De Silva, the former defence secretary had been Presidential adviser on Defence to Kumaratunga after retiring as defence secretary. In a move due to reasons that are yet unclear Ottawa refused to accept Chandrananda De Silva’s nomination.

It appeared that Ottawa rejected him due to some acts of omission and commission by De Silva while serving as Defence adviser and secretary. Being the top defence bureaucrat De Silva was perceived as being responsible in an overall capacity though he had no direct involvement in these acts.

The rejection and request to nominate someone else was not given any publicity by Ottawa. It was kept under diplomatic wraps by Canada. There have been other instances too where designated diplomats from some African, Middle Eastern and Latin American Countries were not made welcome by Ottawa. The Countries concerned when discreetly informed by Ottawa promptly responded by withdrawing such nominees. New persons were designated without much fuss and the media kept in the dark.

But Sri Lanka was a different kettle of fish. Lakshman Kadirgamar who bristled at real or imaginary slights by certain countries took umbrage over this issue. Apart from sending tough protests to Ottawa Mr. Kadirgamar also leaked the story to his favourite mouthpiece in Colombo. The English newspaper concerned went to town with the story that Canada had rejected Lanka’s new high Commissioner designate.

This was picked up by sections of the Sinhala media who accused Ottawa of rejecting De Silva at the behest of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) lobby in Canada. This accusation was incorrect as Ottawa at that juncture had been quite even handed in dealings with those perceived as pro – tiger.

Tamil National alliance Parliamentarians like MK Sivajilingam, Joseph Pararajasingham, Selvarajah Gajendran, Padmini Sithambaranathan etc had been refused entry to Canada. So too was KP Regi the Taml Rehabilitation Organization chief and even “Taraki” Sivaram. Though people like Sivaram and Joseph had visited Canada regularly in the past Ottawa indicated its displeasure of people allegedly linked to terrorism through these types of action.Yet the Sinhala hardliners began toasting Canada on account of this.

The matter became a prestige issue due to Colombo’s undiplomatic and ill advised move to leak the issue to newspapers. If the matter had been kept quiet some kind of compromise may have been possible. Media glare created a situation where either side could not back down.

The next turn development in this diplomatic cold war was Kumaratunga appointing Presidential secretary Karunaratne as High Commissioner designate. This was virtually on the eve of her departure from office. With Mahinda Rajapakse becoming President the Canada High Commissioner designation too was put on hold. After some delay the green light was given to Karunaratne.

Ottawa too had no difficulty with a man like Karunaratne. Meanwhile there was a change of Government in Canada. The Conservatives under Stephen Harper took over. Two men wanting Ottawa to ban the LTTE became ministers. One was domestic security minister Stockwell Day and the other Foreign minister Peter McKay. The LTTE was listed as a terrorist organization in Canada. This created much goodwill for Ottawa in Colombo.

Interestingly enough Ottawa too did not appoint an envoy to Colombo for many, many moons. Former High Commissioner Valerie Raymond had completed her term and returned last year. Still Ottawa was hesitant to appoint a replacement till the Colombo envoy issue was resolved. There was a feeling that Colombo may take petty revenge by rejecting credentials of the new Canadian envoy. So the High Commissioner posts in both Ottawa and Colombo were kept vacant for several months.

Now the crisis seems to be over. Mr. Karunaratne has been cleared and will resume duties shortly. Likewise Canada too will announce its new envoy to Colombo in June. The bitter, diolomatic row that kept both positions unfilled has ended at last. [transCurrents.com]

Contact DBS Jeyaraj : djeyaraj2005@yahoo.com