Date:13/04/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/04/13/stories/2007041303341200.htm

International

Sri Lanka warns foreign diplomats

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has warned that interference by foreign diplomats in the local affairs of a sovereign country can make them liable for deportation and persona non grata status.

Senior Adviser to the President and former Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando told the Government run Daily News that Colombo was concerned over "unnecessary interference" in local affairs by a number of Western diplomats, particularly European ones.

According to him, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama are concerned about the issue. He said that under the Vienna Convention, a diplomat who is assigned to a particular country cannot interfere in the affairs of that sovereign nation and can be subjected to deportation.

"I advised them that under the Vienna Convention a diplomat who interferes in the affairs of a sovereign country to which he/she is accredited can be asked to go home," he said .

Many Western countries were funding humanitarian aid in Sri Lanka but that did not allow them to interfere in the country's affairs, he said.