Diplomats interfering in local affairs can be deported - Tyronne

Rafik Jalaldeen

COLOMBO: Interference by foreign diplomats in the local affairs of a sovereign country can make them liable for deportation and persona non grata status, Senior Advisor to the President and former Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando said.

The Government is concerned over the unnecessary interference in local affairs by a number of Western diplomats, particularly European diplomats, Fernando said.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama are concerned about this development, he added.

Fernando explained 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,” Fernando told the Daily News.

“In fact, when I was acting Foreign Minister I had to ask a Western diplomat to go home,” he recalled.

Many Western countries are funding humanitarian aid in different forms in Sri Lanka but that not does allow them to interfere in the country’s affairs, he said. “The days of colonialism and imperialism are long over to put their nose in our own affairs.”