By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

It has become very clear now that the Swiss drama was a deliberate hoax enacted by neo-liberal western powers, the UNP and the LTTE terrorists to discredit and malign the new Sri Lanka government headed by President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. just one week after it came to power to    Political columns of both the Island” abd Sunhday Times” have posted details relating to Swiss threats made to the new government to force to acquiesce to its dictates and make it collapse before it started its programmes. 

The Island columnist C.A.Chandraprema (CAC) states that Sri Lanka can never expect fair play from Switzerland as it is more pro-LTTE than most other Western countries and points out recent actions by Swiss authorities which include court ruling saying that the Tamil Tigers are not a criminal organization, acquitting 12 LTTE activists who had been charged with sending 15 million Swiss Francs collected from the Sri Lankan community in Switzerland during the war and about the sophisticated system being maintained by Swiss LTTE to raise funds from the Tamil community in Switzerland.

CAC further points out that when Malaysia is rounding up LTTE activists, India and Sri Lanka are on the alert for attempts to revive the LTTE and the whole world is on alert with regard to any kind of terrorist activity because terrorism is the scourge of the modern world, Switzerland has justified terrorist attacks if it is to seek separate independent state. They have decriminalized the collecting of funds in Switzerland for terrorist attacks on Sri Lanka and refuses even to consider the LTTE to be a criminal group even though the FBI categorized the LTTE as the deadliest terrorist organization in the world in 2008.

Although the LTTE military machine was smashed by Sri Lanka in 2009,its international networks still remains intact and still poses a direct threat to countries like Sri Lanka, India and Malaysia. The Swiss government however actively promotes LTTE terrorism and provides a safe haven for LTTE terrorists on Swiss soil. This is the background in which this entire abduction drama had taken place.

Gania Barrister Frncis alias Sriyalatha Perera

A statement issued by the the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs on this hoax drama has stressed: –

* An employee of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo has today been detained on the grounds that she allegedly made false statement sand they calls on the Sri Lankan judicial authorities to ensure better protection of its employee’s personal rights in any further proceedings and compliance with national law and international standards.

* The local employee has reported that she had been abducted in Colombo to force her to disclose embassy-related information.

* The staffer was subjected to a 30-hour interrogation and was subjected over three days despite being in poor health.

* They expect the Sri Lankan law enforcement authorities to comply with national law and international judicial standards and to ensure that the employee’s rights are now better protected and it calls on the Sri Lankan authorities to meet their obligations under applicable law and give due consideration to the employee’s poor state of health.

* That in this high-profile case Sri Lanka’s reputation as a country that upholds the rule of law is at stake.

The Swiss government prior to its dealings with Sri Lanka on this case has given all related information to the New York Times facilitating them to publish an article highly critical of Sri Lanka under the title “Sri Lankan Critics Fear a Crackdown Is Underway, and Some Flee” on November 27 before we Sri Lankans knew anything about this alleged incident. The said article has quoted the Swiss foreign ministry as its source.  Extracted details and comments on the article will follow.

CAC explains that the Swiss embassy took nearly two weeks after the incident to present the alleged victim for a medical examination to be carried out and for a statement to be recorded. During that entire period she was held incommunicado in the Swiss embassy in Colombo and there is no word about that in the Swiss government’s statement. Even though the Swiss authorities have condemned the 30-hours of interrogation to which the employee was subjected over three days despite allegedly being in poor health, the Swiss have not explained why this person who was supposedly in poor health was kept inside the Swiss embassy instead of being given medical help for nearly two weeks.

He further states that even after presenting the alleged victim for a statement to be recorded, the Swiss embassy retained possession of the alleged victim’s and her husband’s phone and a court order had to be obtained asking the embassy to give that phone and the sim cards to the CID and there are no reports to say that the Swiss embassy has complied with this order. CAC states that wee have to hope that the Swiss Embassy will not do to those phones and SIM cards what Hillary Clinton had done to her phones and SIM cards – the FBI found that they had been smashed to bits with hammers!  

In conclusion of his column CAC says that another possibility is that this woman may have been motivated to do this by some outside party without the knowledge of the Swiss embassy. He claims that there seems to be a close connection between the LTTE groups in Switzerland, the UNP, the TNA and the Swiss government and hence the new Sri Lankan government will have to figure out a way to deal with this. From the very beginning, the enemies of the Rajapaksas were the UNP and associated political parties and the Western embassies backing them. Now that the Rajapaksas are back with a huge mandate, naturally, these local representatives of the global liberal mafia are doing their damnedest to undermine the new government. We have seen this happening in other countries too where the global liberal mafia has been conclusively defeated.

CAC in a note of caution states that the Swiss drama which began within days of the new President assumed office clearly shows that the Western embassies will not allow the new government to rule the country in peace but will do their damnedest to undermine it. In last Monday’s statement, the Swiss authorities had indicated to the Sri Lankan authorities that it is seeking ‘a common and constructive way forward’ to resolve the security incident. This position has been reiterated in the statement issued by the Swiss authorities on Thursday as well. What is the resolution that the Swiss are seeking? If they want to have legal action against their local staffer stopped and permission to take her out of the country as they have been demanding all along, that is a not a feasible option for Sri Lanka because we would then be portrayed as the guilty party.

 We have not yet got to the bottom of who is behind all this. If the government caves into the Swiss demands and stops legal action against this local staffer, will Sri Lanka be left alone? Hardly likely. It will only intensify the campaign against Sri Lanka. Thus, the only feasible option that Sri Lanka has in the present case is to come down hard on all those involved. That will at least deter any future gimmicks of this sort.

CAC also advises that Sri Lanka’s economy too should turn east and the economy will have to be oriented away from the West to the east consciously over the next few years so that our dependency on the West is reduced and their ability to dictate terms goes down proportionately. It is certainly true that it is only the Swiss embassy that is involved in this spat with Sri Lanka and the other Western embassies have not got involved. But the fact that the Swiss can get away with what they have done up to now without international condemnation, indicates that Sri Lanka has no future with the West and that the wisest course of action is to look Eastwards.

The Sunday Tines Political Editor (STPE) states that the Swiss government has issued a virtual ultimatum urging Colombo to ensure all matters in the case of Garnier Banister Francis, their Assistant Migration Officer, be completed on December 16. This was with the case being taken up in the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court that day. In other words, the Swiss government expected the matter to end there and the ding-dong controversy brought to a halt and it did not work that way.

As the officially designated Assistant Migration Officer Garnia Barrister Francis was dealing with visa and asylum applications together with her Migration Officer, a Swiss lady. In her official capacity, she was privy to sensitive information on those who have obtained asylum as well as those who sought visas among related matters. This included the case of Chief Inspector Nishantha de Silva, head of the organised crimes division of the CID. He has now obtained asylum in Switzerland.

She had alleged that she was sexually abused and assaulted at the teacher’s apartment by unknown men according to what she told the CID. She had not complained to the Police because the unidentified persons had warned that her family members would be killed. One of these men had also pointed a pistol at her, she has alleged. This is in marked contrast. Either in her first statement to her bosses or the later one to the CID there was no reference to the purported abductors thrusting a pistol in her mouth. The charge was made by former Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne as if he was A witness to this hoax drama or who was a party to the abductor gang.

The first account she gave her Ambassador and later confirmed by his deputy, Imbach, runs completely against her version to the CID. She has told CID that she went to the apartment of a teacher at St Bridget’s Convent at 3 p.m. on November 25. However, she has claimed that the incident occurred just after 5 p.m. Surveillance camera footage in the vicinity had revealed that she had left the apartment by that time. An Uber taxi in which she claimed she travelled had no records of that journey. The CID had also found evidence to confirm she has told neighbours around the apartment she lived in Maligakanda that she and her family were leaving home since they were going abroad. Similarly, there have been many other statements that were contradictory leaving the CID and the Attorney General’s Department to conclude that she had fabricated the incident. Exacerbating the situation, they confirmed, was the fact that she was in a physically and mentally fit and proper condition. She was, however, in a confused state at times, said one source.

From Monday, she remains in the Y” Ward of the Remand Prison at Welikade. This ward also houses a number of female drugs suspects whose cases are pending in courts. This came amidst reports that alleged she was found in possession of a sim card and a mobile phone. Prison sources said that the matter was now being investigated. Meals for Banister Francis were being delivered from outside. It has remained a common practice for prisoners and remand prisoners to smuggle in telephones into prisons by bribing their way through. A group of European envoys, a diplomatic source in Colombo said, urged Foreign Relations Minister Dinesh Gunawardena to provide her with reasonably better” facilities in the remand cell. He has replied that it was possible to do so if her counsel made a formal request – a procedure that is usually followed.

The EU envoys meeting with Minister Gunawardena had been fixed before the Swiss saga began. The envoys took up the same position as the Swiss government that due process” should be followed. They asked that Banister Francis be properly protected.” The EU envoys also complained that the local media were biased” and one sided.” Minister Gunawardena had replied that the media in Sri Lanka were free” and the government had no role to play in what they do, the same source said.

STPE said that according to Colombo based western diplomats the alleged abduction centres on Chief Inspector Nishantha de Silva of the CID.  The CID denied such accusations. Another suspicion is whether an outside party staged it with the intention of placing both President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the government in an awkward position. In Colombo, the latter position has gained more substance as the investigations continue. It has come to light that an outside party who had allegedly colluded with the CID, has fled the country with his family. That a second person connected to the investigations, after CI de Silva, has flown away has angered the government leaders. ght by western countries in particular. The tragic irony is that the new government is in accord, but for very different reasons. In the recent years, this elite organisation of the Police department has been politicised to such a degree it has lost its credibility and reputation. In the past four and half years, the CID was handling a part of the so-called high-profile cases. In reality it was against the ruling party’s opponents.

Either agreed before or otherwise, STPE points out that the statements made by Banister Francis relate entirely to her two claims, one to her Ambassador and the other to the CID, only over the alleged incident. It is facts arising from this purported incident that the CID has been reporting to the Chief Magistrate’s Court. Being a Sri Lankan citizen, she does not enjoy any diplomatic immunity. Like all other citizens, during a Police inquiry where they are required to make a statement, they would have to sign it to affirm its authenticity. There is a paradoxical situation here.

Mindful of any undertaking given, or on their own volition to avoid accusations, CID detectives appear not to have dealt with the CI de Silva affaire during the interrogation – the sole cause why Bannister Francis claims she was purportedly molested sexually and assaulted. If the CID did so, answers to some questions would have surfaced. However, the CID complained she was not co-operating.” That would have included details like for how long CI de Silva has the asylum application remained under consideration, who were the parties helping him and the telephone details that are linked. She has told investigators that her mobile phone was with the embassy. Of course, this is not to suggest that she has to violate confidentiality to which she is sworn into by her employers. This is only to make clear how knotty the issue has become for the investigators.

The role of the CID has also been one of the bones of contention between Bern and Colombo when efforts were being made to urge the local staffer to make a statement. After protracted discussion, it was agreed that the local lawyer representing the embassy staffer would be near when her statement was being recorded. In addition, two embassy staffers were also allowed to sit at a distance. They were able to see the statement being recorded but were not within hearing distance. The government agreed to these moves to obviate any complaints of the absence of transparency or complaints of impropriety.

STPEAlso reported that Ambassador Mock, once his Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson, played the role of an interlocutor shuttling among backers of Ranil Wickremesinghe, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Maithripala Sirisena during last October’s political crisis. He said that The Sunday Times can now reveal that the role of a ‘peace maker’ came at the request of then President Sirisena. By then, he had realised he had erred over the foisting of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister after ousting incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe. The Supreme Court was to later pronounce the move as unconstitutional. Envoy Mock was the second diplomat from whom Sirisena sought help after the first person he consulted declined To intervene.

Notwithstanding the current deadlock, it is imperative that the government resolves the Swiss saga by ensuring that relations reach normalcy. The pronouncements of Bern and Colombo make clear their positions are well known. The issue over a local employee should not be allowed to irreparably sour relations between two nations.

To be continued………