Kadir statue gets fitting site

The Kadirgamar statue waiting for its final resting place

Cabinet has approved a fresh proposal to put up the Government financed statue of the late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS) and overruled moves by incumbent Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama to erect the statue at an insignificant location in Colombo's Viharamaha Devi Park.

Urban Development Minister Dinesh Gunawardena told The Sunday Times "the President along with the Cabinet of Ministers gave their approval this week for this. We said that the earlier site was not suitable to honour such a man".

Minister Gunawardena and Minister Ferial Ashraff presented a joint Cabinet paper this week for the re-location of the statue following months of debate over the site, and a secretive foundation-stone ceremony at the Viharamahadevi park on August 11, at which Minister Bogollagama participated with a handful of Foreign Ministry officials only.

Mr. Gunawardena along with Ms. Asharff and Mr. Bogollagama were in the committee which was to decide on the location where the statue should be erected, but the Foreign Minister had taken an arbitrary decision on his own . Minister Kadirgamar was assassinated on August 12, 2005, and the Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies founded by him as a think-tank was named after him by the Government.