Gota’s Envoy To Germany Wants Lankan Anti-Terror Task Force To Monitor Instagram In Europe

JULY 31, 2020

A video conference organised recently by the Ministry of Foreign Relations to discuss ‘strategic communications’ descended into a farce with several politically appointed ambassadors falling over each other to demonstrate their nationalist and patriotic credentials.

Manori Unambuwe

One such case was Manori Unambuwe, who was hand-picked by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to represent Sri Lanka as Ambassador to Germany. During the tele-conference Unambuwe floated the idea that an anti terrorism task force on cyber security should established to monitor social media platforms of youth in Europe, especially Sri Lankan Tamils living in the area.

“I am looking at how to build an idea of inclusive nationalism and promote the Sri Lankan identity, rather than Tamil, Muslim identity” the new envoy said. “We must develop different story lines that will have traction in Germany such as emphasis on sovereignty and territorial integrity. We must highlight that terrorism is very much alive with the LTTE, ISIS and others. The fight today is in cyberspace for example there was an Instagram campaign recently which ran the tag line – I am a Tamil and the genocide is a part of my identity. These things must be monitored closely and countered. You have to have a Counter terrorism Task Force on Cyberspace to monitor these campaigns in Europe and use Sri Lankan (Sinhala) youth as a front to counter these things,” she added

The shocking recommendation would effectively set up a surveillance mechanism to monitor Sri Lankans living in Europe through their social media accounts, a policy the Sri Lankan Government has already launched domestically.

Unambuwe who is also accredited to Switzerland first became prominent when she used her own social media platform to severely criticize the Swiss Government in December 2019.

In her rather undiplomatic post condemning the Swiss government and aimed more at human smugglers said “Forget your Korean language exams, TOEFL, or smuggling yourself to Australia. Just claim the Sri Lankan government threatened you, and harassed you, and you’ll get first class tickets for you and your family straight to a 1st world life in Switzerland! All courtesy of the Swiss embassy.”

Ironically, it is now revealed that Manori Unambuwe’s own brother has been blacklisted by several European countries including Germany for breach of commercial contracts and is no longer able to get a Schengen visa. He had played out several exhibiters promising to build stalls but had disappeared after taking their money. He is now reportedly using the sister’s diplomatic position to promote various other businesses.

A senior source at the Foreign Ministry said that the Ministry’s policy towards the Ambassador to Berlin was to dance attendance on her every wish.

Eyebrows were raised at the Ministry during the video conference when this newbie political appointee proceeded to lecture senior career foreign service officers on her seemingly absurd suggestions to monitor social media in European countries.

Ambassador Unambuwe had failed to realize the repercussions for Sri Lankan relations with such countries where monitoring of personal social media of their citizens is considered not only against the law but a severe breach of diplomatic protocol between countries.

Read More