Canada rejects Sri Lanka's diplomatic nominee- paper

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 April 2005, 21:41 GMT]
"Canadian Government has signalled the Sri Lanka Government that it will not be able to accept Mr. [Chandrananda] de Silva as Sri Lanka's next High Commissioner to Ottawa because under the provisions of the Immigration Act of that country, Mr. de Silva as the one-time holder of office as Secretary of Defence is a person, in respect of whom, if there are any allegations of human rights abuses whether proved or not, would be regarded as an inadmissible person to that country," the weekend Sunday Times said quoting diplomatic sources.

Mr Chandrananda de Silva was a former Secretary to the Defense Ministry in the earlier Peoples Alliance (PA) government led by Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge until end of 2001.

"Mr. de Silva was to replace career diplomat Geetha de Silva as High Commissioner in Ottawa and has been attending lectures at the diplomatictraining school run by the Foreign Ministry in preparation to taking up duties," the paper said.

"The decision comes as a major embarrassment to the Colombo Government which has, ironically, long accused the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of being the ones who have abused Human Rights during their 20-year war for independence in the island's north and east provinces," the paper pointed out.