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Trade official gets DPL posting in Brussels
By Our Diplomatic Editor
Foreign Minister Anura Bandaranaike has finally filled the vacancy in the key diplomatic capital of Brussels, the headquarters of the increasingly influential European Union (EU) — with an official from the Commerce Department.
The first ambassadorial appointment following the assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar has sent shock-waves through the Foreign Office in Colombo, The Sunday Times learns.

Foreign Minister Bandaranaike made the appointment from somewhere overseas. K.J. Weerasinghe, Sri Lanka's ambassador to the World Trade Organisation in Geneva has been nominated as the country's new ambassador to Brussels, a largely political station, with trade and economic matters being secondary.

Brussels was without an ambassador during the key period when Sri Lanka was lobbying the 25-nation EU for a strong statement on the LTTE following the assassination of Mr. Kadirgamar on August 12. It had been manned by A.K. Perera, a trade attache from the Commerce Department.

Now, the two senior-most posts in the Sri Lankan mission in Brussels will be filled by two men from the Commerce Department, and none from the Foreign Service.

Hitherto, the Sri Lankan mission in Brussels has been headed by K. Godage, N. Cassie-Chetty, F. Navaratnarajah and R. Jayasinghe, all career diplomats from the Foreign Service.

The Brussels ambassadorial-nominee, Mr. Weerasinghe, is reportedly an efficient public servant, but his expertise is in the technical and trade fields, and not in diplomatic and political handling.

EU diplomats who said that Sri Lanka's case against the LTTE, vigorously pursued by its European-based diplomats, especially in memory of their assassinated minister, was weakened by the absence of an ambassador in Brussels, point out that Brussels is essentially a political station.

Mr. Weerasinghe accompanied Minister Bandaranaike some months ago on a five-day five-nation European tour where Trade Minister Jeyeraj Fernandopulle successfully secured concessions on garment quotas for the Sri Lankan apparel industry.

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