Dayan Jayatilake sacked from UN ambassador post

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 July 2009, 10:52 GMT]
Mr.Dayan Jayatilake said he had been sacked from his post as Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations at Geneva. Mr.Jayatilake told Colombo media that he had been sacked from July 17 - a fax came from the Foreign Ministry, terminating his contract with effect from August 20 and requesting his return. No reasons were given, Jayatilake said, according to Colombo media reports.

Mr.Jayatilake took over as Ambassador to the United Nations at Geneva, Switzerland on June 6, 2007. He was also appointed Consul General of Sri Lanka to Switzerland and Ambassador to the Holy See.

In a telephone link up from Geneva, Dr. Jayatilake told the Sunday Times Friday night that Colombo’s decision comes barely two months after his contract was extended until August 2010.

“In a letter dated March 21, 2009, Foreign Secretary Dr. Palitha Kohona on the instructions of the President had advised me that my term of office had been extended to August 2010. However, I never made any request for such an extension, it was purely a decision taken by Colombo,” Dr. Jayatilake explained.

“Now they tell me that I must give up the office. I have no objections to that, but it should have been done through the proper channels. If the Government believes that I had stepped out of line in any manner then it’s only polite that they inform me accordingly”, he further said.

“People holding high office should be treated on merit, and in my case past experience speaks for it self. I will now return to Colombo and take up lecturing at the Colombo University,” Dr. Jayatilake further added, according to the Sunday Times report.