Diplomatic scandal over Karuna, ties with Britain dip

Britain’s relations with Sri Lanka have taken a nose-dive after breakaway LTTE rebel leader Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias ‘Karuna Amman’ was arrested near London and found to have entered the United Kingdom on a Sri Lankan diplomatic passport issued by its Foreign Ministry and containing bogus bio-data.

The Foreign Ministry in Colombo is reported to have issued a Third Person Note (TPN), a diplomatic letter of recommendation from one Government to another. The British High Commission in Colombo had readily issued a visa for Karuna’s entry into the UK based on this protocol. Karuna had entered Britain nearly two months ago to live with his family who had arrived earlier.

British authorities are angry that they were duped into issuing an entry visa, following this TPN in the name of a person who did not travel to Britain. It had borne the name of K. Dushumantha Gunawardena holding an official Sri Lanka Government designation but bore Karuna’s photograph – without his trademark moustache.

The reason given by him to visit was to take part in an environment conference relating to climate change. Officials here say that by submitting a TPN and a diplomatic passport, Karuna had been exempted from the usual requirement for genuine Sri Lankan travellers of being finger-printed.

This move has not only embarrassed Britain, but has also made it bitter at being handed a delicate problem with serious implications, officials here said. Britain seems bitter enough to “return to sender”-- as one diplomat who did not want to be named put it -- ‘Col’ Karuna who Sri Lanka tried to palm on the British.

It is further learnt that the bogus bio-data given on the diplomatic passport included a non-existent Government designation, that of Wild Life chief. Shortly after arriving in Britain, Karuna (K. Dushumuntha Gunawardena) had asked for asylum.“He might have sought asylum. But there is provision in the law to override usual considerations and send him back to Colombo,” the diplomat said.

While British authorities remain tight-lipped except confirming his arrest, other diplomats here believe Karuna will be deported after British intelligence has “milked him sufficiently for relevant information…” There are other informed quarters who say Karuna now giving a detailed account of life in Sri Lanka, may face charges other than immigration offences under British law.

“Sri Lanka has proved its utter incompetence. Though the British had been led up the garden path, they could extract vital information from the man about his role with Sri Lankan security forces. This information could seriously undermine the Sri Lanka government’s credibility and expose its complicity. The British will use that if and when they think necessary to pressure Colombo,” an expert from a London-based think-tank said.

Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed reports that Karuna who is said to be held at the Oakington Detention Centre was set upon by some other Sri Lankan Tamils who are also held there. Later Karuna is said to have been moved to a separate room. This, however, could not be verified as British authorities are not disclosing Karuna’s location. Neither are the authorities ready to say whether Karuna was in possession of a firearm at the time of his arrest at his residence in expensive Kensington area of London, as is rumoured in Tamil circles.

The Sri Lankan government’s silence on media reports that Karuna had been issued with a diplomatic passport on which he travelled under an assumed name has multiplied Britain’s embarrassment as it finds it has been “hoodwinked into issuing a UK entry visa,” a British source who wished to retain his anonymity told The Sunday Times.“We find ourselves in a situation somewhat similar to when Chile’s former dictator Gen Pinochet came here for medical treatment and there was pressure on us to arrest him for crimes against humanity.”

As in the case of Gen Pinochet, whose presence in Britain exactly nine years ago became a major issue for the Blair Government, human rights bodies are crying for Karuna’s blood and have called on the British Government to try him for war crimes and crimes against humanity. They cite the reports of UN officials and others that Karuna’s breakaway group has been responsible for what could be broadly described as crimes against humanity prosecutable in the International Criminal Court.

Karuna is said to have sought asylum on his arrest. With his wife and three children also asylum seekers, under the European Human Rights Convention Britain would find it difficult to deport Karuna to Sri Lanka in normal circumstances particularly because it splits the family. But British immigration rules following the European Convention on the grant of humanitarian protection, allow Britain under article 339D to exclude the grant of such protection if it is satisfied that “there are serious reasons for considering that he has committed a crime against peace, a war crime, a crime against humanity or any other serious crime or instigated or otherwise participated in such crime.”

Ironically, interested parties hounding Karuna include supporters of the LTTE, an organisation in which he had played a major role earlier allegedly committing ‘war crimes’.