Sri Lanka Mission conducts mobile consular services in Italy

For the first time Tamils have managed to organise successfully a day of dialogue and cooperation with the Government of Sri Lanka and it was said that this was the first step of a long journey towards peace in the country.

It all started in the Reggio Emilia, one of the two provinces in Italy where there is a large concentration of Tamils. The largest concentration is in Palermo. The Sri Lankan Embassy in the past had continuously neglected these two provinces for unexplained reasons, said of the members of the Tamil community when they met Sri Lanka's Ambassador Hemantha Warnakulasuriya in Modena

When Shana Jesuthasan, one of the consultants of the Foreign Immigrants Committee of the CGIL Trade Union met the Ambassador in Modena, she invited the Sri Lankan Embassy staff to have a mobile consular service in Reggio Emilia.

Accordingly, the Sri Lanka Embassy conducted a mobile service in the Reggio Emilia Province.

Ambassador Warnakulasuriya who participated in the mobile consular service explained that throughout his career as a student and then as a lawyer, some of his closest friends were Tamil, who remain friends till today.

He said that he's one who went out of his way to help the Tamils during the riots in 1983.

He also mentioned the fact that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has encouraged him to treat the Tamil diaspora as brothers and sisters of the Sri Lankan community and it was his advice that the Embassy must get the Tamils to participate in all important events of the Embassy and they must never feel neglected. He said that the President told the Ambassador designate, when he made a courtesy call before being posted to Italy.

It was reported that the Mobile Consular Service held in Reggio Emilia was one of the most successful ones conducted by the Sri Lankan Embassy. The Embassy staff was hosted by the Reggio Emilia Association, and there were a number of volunteers who supported the Consular Service.

Subsequently, Shana Jesuthasan who was responsible for organising the Consular Mobile Service emailed the embassy: "A special thanks to all the comrades of the Coordination Committee for Immigrants and of the caretaking office for the contribution and support demonstrated on the occasion of the arrival of the officers of the Embassy of Sri Lanka at the CGIL office of Reggio Emilia, because only the unity of our work has permitted for the first time in the history of Sri Lanka that Tamils have managed to organise successfully a day of dialogue and cooperation with the Government of Sri Lanka...this is the first step of a long journey towards peace in our country.

Thank you CGIL and thanks again comrades from all the Sri Lankan communities."

As far as the Sri Lankan Embassy in Italy is concerned, this will be a great stepping stone to bring every single community of Sri Lankans in Italy together in the Government's effort to treat everyone equally, and devolve power and get them to support the cause of elimination of terrorism.