Soon after facing threats of losing his position as Sri Lanka's ambassador to Paris, Dayan Jayatilleka, vehemently rebutted the accusations. Responding to the letter stating that he should be charged under Sri Lanka's Penal Code, for "alleged wrongdoings" in the conduct of the affairs of the Embassy in Paris, Jayatilleka said,
"Having destroyed the solid 17 vote majority I obtained for the country [in 2009], thus handing a victory to the pro-Tiger elements worldwide and making Sri Lanka vulnerable to external interference, these power- hungry conspiratorial elements are now trying to ‘white van’ my reputation, instead of examining how, why and where they failed in Geneva."
The alleged wrongdoings include repainting and whitewashing the embassy and ambassadorial residence buildings prior to the visit of external affairs minister, G.L. Peiris, and providing hotel accommodation to the first secretary at a hotel until a suitable house could be found.
Comparing the charges to the Channel 4 documentary ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ and a report released by the UN panel of experts, Jayatilleka dismissed the charges as "crazy, rather like the Darusman report and Channel 4 combined."
Jayatilleka added,
"my task of representing and safeguarding Sri Lanka’s national interest in France, which is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is at a qualitatively different level.”
Indignant, Jayatilleke reminded everyone that he turned down a senior research fellow position at which he was paid ten thousand Singapore dollars a month, because the country’s leadership and its new foreign minister obliged him to return to the task of representing Sri Lanka in the wake of the challenges and danger posed by the ‘Darusman report’.
“Unlike some others I have never been in jail for fraud nor have I had scandalous audit reports concerning huge sums of money spent on the renovation of official residences wherever I served,” said Jayatilleka.
