Sri Lanka's nominee for diplomatic post turned down: source By TERRY PEDWELL
Wednesday, April 20, 2005 Page A4
Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- Canada has rejected the Sri Lankan government's nominee for that country's high commissioner post in Ottawa, citing allegations of human-rights abuses, a diplomatic source said yesterday.
The Sri Lankan government nominated former defence minister Chandrananda de Silva. But Ottawa said it has "reservations" about Mr. de Silva, and last week declined his nomination, said a source who did not want to be identified.
Canada based its decision on the Immigration Act, which can be used to deny entry of any person facing allegations of human-rights violations "whether proved or not," the source said.
A Foreign Affairs official refused to confirm Mr. de Silva's rejection, citing international protocols to keep such matters secret.
20405:AMERICANS GO HOME.IRAQIS TOLDGLWFWD BodyGREENLEFT WEEKLY AUSTRALIA, 20 APR 2005 www.greenleft.org.au AddedNote: The mbutt-media in Australia has not reported this largest anti-US Occupation protest in Baghdad. If not for the greenleft weekly, such event would...
"Canada respects the principle that the process . . . is a confidential matter between states," Marie-Christine Lilkoff said. "Foreign Affairs Canada does not comment on . . . requests from foreign countries, and relies on them to extend the same courtesy.
"Canada enjoys an excellent relationship with Sri Lanka, and looks forward to the arrival of the new high commissioner as soon as possible," Ms. Lilkoff added.
Mr. de Silva was defence secretary during Sri Lanka's lengthy war against the Tamil Tigers in the 1990s.
In the mid-1990s, the Sri Lankan military came under international scrutiny for its actions, and was cited in a United Nations report for human-rights violations.
The same report condemned terror acts by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE.
"The timing of this move is very unfortunate," said Elliot Tepper, an Asian studies specialist at Carleton University in Ottawa.
"After a period of increasing closeness and close co-operation between Canada and Sri Lanka, to have this erupt at this time is distressing," said Prof. Tepper, who co-chairs a group called Canadian Friends of Sri Lanka.
Canada is home to large numbers of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees and expatriates, particularly in the Toronto area.
A newspaper report in Sri Lanka quoted unidentified diplomatic sources as saying that the decision to reject Mr. de Silva was influenced by Canada's powerful pro-LTTE lobby.
"The decision comes as a major embarrbuttment to the Sri Lankan government which has, ironically, long accused the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam of abusing human rights during the 20-year war for independence," the Colombo-based Sunday Times said on Monday.
It's not the first time Canada has rejected a Sri Lankan candidate for the job.
In the 1980s, Ottawa turned down Tissa Weeratunga, a former army commander who was appointed by then-president J. R. Jayewardene.
That diplomatic clash ended after several months when Mr. Jayewardene refused to change his decision and Canada relented. This time, there's hope the issue will be resolved more quickly.
"Because relations between Canada and Sri Lanka have improved so much . . . we can only hope there will be a much quicker resolution and much more satisfactory resolution this time than the previous incident," Prof. Tepper said.
"Everybody's been working so hard to see that relations move to a new, higher plain. And now this has happened."
Sri Lanka's previous high commissioner, Geetha de Silva, left Ottawa on March 21.
