Switzerland Embassy Colombo – just release the Sri Lankan National kept inside embassy since 25th Nov
Posted on December 4th, 2019
All rational thinking people are stupefied as to why the Swiss embassy is keeping a Sri Lankan National inside the embassy compound but asking the GOSL to conclude the investigation into an alleged abduction which has not been officially made by the victim. This is a strange situation. We have been reading statements by everyone but the victim. What if the version of the victim is completely different! We can only know what her version is if the embassy simply allows her to leave the embassy. Why are they keeping her inside an office since 25th November? It is now over a week that this lady has not seen her family. This is very awkward behavior for a country eternally preaching about human rights!
Amidst all this Sri Lanka’s ambassador is summoned to Berne to explain the factual dispute.
Let’s get something very clear first:
It was the Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman Pierre-Alain Eltschinger on 27th November 2019 about an incident. All that he said was: the female local recruit was threatened” in order to force her to disclose embassy-related information” – detained ‘against her will’ ‘on the street’
“Switzerland views the incident as a very grave and unacceptable attack on one of its diplomatic missions and their employees,” spokesman says
That statement did not disclose any detail about her being abducted in a vehicle by unidentified persons which was only included in the statement by the Swiss Embassy Colombo. (pl refer what the Swiss Ministry said and what the Swiss Embassy has said in its official statement)
So if authorities go by only the Swiss Foreign Ministry statement – she was never abducted.
This means the Swiss Embassy must explain how they included a version that the Swiss Foreign Ministry did not include!
Obviously the Swiss Mission in Colombo has given various other details and Sri Lankan authorities investigating these have claimed that the timeline and sequence do not match against the details they gave. This was after going through witness accounts, technical evidence, Uber records, CCTV footage, telephone records and GPS data.
So when State Secretary Pascale Baeriswyl questions Sri Lanka’s envoy K. Hettiarachchi & asks him to explain how Sri Lanka’s evidence contradicts Switzerland’s version we should be asking is it the first version that she was threatened on the street or the additional versions given by the Swiss Embassy or the coterie of other third party versions that Sri Lanka has to investigate?
If Switzerland has no interest in delaying the investigations why are they not releasing this Sri Lankan National – first to be medically examined and next to help file complaint and expedite investigations based on her direct complaint and not those of third or fourth parties making statements on behalf of her.
If Switzerland is supporting to settle the matter by due process of law, then why is a person kept virtually hostage inside an embassy compound. Not only is this a mental torture for her having to be stuck inside a small office but she must be traumatized by not seeing her family for over 1 week now.
This is quite inhuman of the Swiss authorities who claim her health is deteriorating but will not allow any Sri Lankan doctors to examine her?
If she was well enough to come to work how can her health fail so suddenly?
What has happened to her inside the embassy that the Swiss do not wish to tell the world about.
This suspense is only allowing many people to create their own versions which is confusing the investigations further and which is why it requires authorities to get her version directly.
The Swiss Embassy Colombo is behaving very childishly regarding this entire incident.
The key to this is that there is a major variance in what the Swiss Foreign Ministry originally said on 27th November 2019 and the official statement issued by the Swiss Embassy Colombo on 29th November 2019 (5 days after the incident) while keeping the local recruit boxed up inside the embassy compound.
If the Swiss authorities are not allowing any doctors to see her at least they should allow the Cardinal to visit her and bless her.
But the behavior of the embassy is bordering the ridiculous and it is more like a hostage situation which is far more worrying than an alleged threatening on the street.
A Sri Lankan National is being kept inside an embassy compound since 25th November and the embassy is refusing to release her and we all want to know why.
Leave aside filing complaint or being questioned, shouldn’t she deserve medical attention and to return to her family? Why is the Swiss denying this – her fundamental right?
More than concluding any investigations, she should get medical assistance and return to the comfort of her home and family.
Shenali D Waduge
December 4th, 2019 at 6:04 am
POLICE SHOULD STORM THE EMBASSY COMPOUND TO RELEASE HOSTAGE. IT HAS TO BE UNDER THE DIRECTIVE OF GB.
December 4th, 2019 at 3:17 pm
No need to do that, Susantha. Let’s leave it to the government under Gotabhaya to decide what to do. They will handle it in the right way. The whole world now know, if they care enough about Sri Lanka’s victimization at the present juncture, that this is a mean ploy adopted by an acolyte of the Americans to embarrass SL in Geneva in March 2020.
December 6th, 2019 at 4:00 pm
My prediction is that it is someone who is going to be rewarded by being given asylum in Switzerland for herself and her family in return for speaking against the current Government when she and her family are in Switzerland. My guess is this is being funded by the same powers that funded the campaign that was directed against President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 2015 election.
We saw in the 2015 election how many lies were told by the JVP, JHU and various other so-called Civil organizations which mostly consisted of one or two people. The lies became so numerous that President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was so popular, was brought down by the sheer volume of lies without any basis on truth. The JVP was speaking of golden horses from the Buckingham palace, fleets of Lamborghinis, and various stories about Namal and the rest of MR’s family. They were also showing videos of these cars and horses from other countries as being Mahinda’s cars and horses, which lies some of our people believed and some easily led others were led to doubt Pres MR. President Mahinda Rajapaksa who was doing so much good work was set aside for a Western puppet-like Ranil and now after 5 years, those misled people have realized their mistake.
Similar antics have started again, this time with Gotabhaya as President of Sri Lanka! Aiyo! When will our people learn to discern fact from fiction!