Tamara did not take chances in Geneva

There was speculation on Tuesday March 20th that the vote on the unprecedented draft resolution under Item Two on the UN Human Rights Council agenda -- would be taken up on Wednesday instead of Thursday.

The council operates under ten agenda items and Item Two refers to annual reports by the Human Rights Council.

However, by Wednesday morning, the Sri Lankan delegation was prepared to face it and had decided that Plantations Minister and Human Rights Special Envoy Mahinda Samarasinghe would lead the delegation instead of External Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris.

Of course, there was some closed-door wrangling over who should lead the delegation although the strategic meetings in the control room on the mezzanine floor of Geneva's Intercontinental Hotel were co-chaired by the two ministers.

The Sri Lankan delegation came to the Palais des Nations on Wednesday and held crisis talks with envoys of like-minded-group nations. By midday, the Sri Lankan delegation got information that the vote would take place on Thursday as scheduled. Many of them then left the UN premises. But Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative Tamara Kunanayakam did not. Because she did not want to take a chance, especially when the presidency of the council is headed by a nation that had decided to vote for the draft resolution on Sri Lanka.

She said that on a previous occasion, a matter concerning Sri Lanka was taken up at the council though hours before UN officials had told the Sri Lanka mission that it would be taken up the following day.

Once-bitten, twice shy, Kunanayakam left the UN premises only after she received official confirmation around 3 p.m. on Wednesday from her affable and able media officer Natasha Maurice that the draft resolution on Sri Lanka would be taken up as scheduled on Thursday.