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External Affairs Ministry wants clarification on ‘American Corners”
View(s):The United States Embassy’s move to open an “American Corner” at the Urban Council-run Trincomalee Public Library has run into controversy.
“We were made to understand that the US Embassy has opened such Corners in Kandy and Jaffna as well,” said Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs, Karuntilaka Amunugama. “We want to know the background and how they opened the Corners in Kandy and Jaffna. We are in touch with the respective mayors to find out whether they signed an agreement or Memorandum of Understanding with the embassy,” he said.
+“We want to know whether they encouraged the U.S. Embassy to open these Corners or were involved in any way.”“Once we have all of this information in our hands, we will take it up with the American Embassy,” he concluded.
The American Corner in Kandy was opened at the D.S. Senanayake Public Library in March 2005 while the one in the North was inaugurated at the Jaffna Social Action Centre in January 2011. It was the first facility in Jaffna to have an operating ADSL internet connection.
“We don’t have a date yet on opening the new Corner in Trinco but we hope by later this year that the library space will be ready,” a U.S. Embassy spokesman told the Sunday Times. He declined to elaborate.
U.S. embassies and local institutions in 400 locations around the world have joined together to create small libraries where visitors can go to find information about America, according to the website of the Office Director of the Office of Information Resources of the U.S. State Department, Jean Cavanaugh.
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