BY  SHENALI WADUGE

 · 12TH JULY 2024

The soon to depart US envoy continues to interfere in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs with impunity primarily because the Minister in charge does not wish to question her on breaking diplomatic protocols & violating the Geneva Conventions. As a result the envoy has come to believe she can summon public officials to her office, question them & even give orders to them. Such was the fate that befell the head of the Office of Missing Persons. What is the pressing need for her to summon a public official, it is nothing but a gravesite in Kokkuthuduwai for which the govt has spent Rs.5.7m so far of public tax payers money. The said gravesite however dates back to 1996 & is of dead LTTE. Unable to name the alleged dead since 2009 or locate the skeletons, it is natural to want to unearth any grave and try to pin a number to prove their lies. We can understand the frenzy as the clock is ticking & with each year it is becoming more & more evident that the 40,000 dead” was a figment of imagination in the minds of many for political gain. But the more important issue here is the need to stop envoys from interfering in internal affairs of sovereign nations.

On top of interfering envoys, there are numerous other entities in the form of USAID-NED-NRI-IRI operating at grassroot levels under numerous camouflaged programs indoctrinating school children-youth-adults, elders & even public servants. None of these programs are being vetted by the State purely because of funds that silence the Minister & Secretaries approving these programs. Taken together, these programs eventually resulted in what took place in 2022 where it did not take rocket science to put together how the initiatives that were funded since 2021 became the outcome of 2022. It is not difficult to piece together what their other programs entail too.

An elected Government is tasked to not only preserve the sovereignty of the nation but to protect the people & ensure even the Public Sector serves the state not foreign entities who think they are above the law while promoting rule of law.

Too many envoys are going beyond diplomatic protocols and these violations are too many. There will soon come a time where public officials may be listening to the diplomats & not the elected government!

Shenali D Waduge