India’s External Affairs Ministry has insisted that, despite speculation, Milinda Moragoda’s nomination as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India last November still stands.
Moragoda’s nomination followed a drastic shake-up of Sri Lanka’s foreign service in September with a number of hard-line Sinhala Buddhist politicians and former military personnel, many of whom have been implicated in grievous war crimes.
Read more here: Sri Lanka shakes up foreign service with military and hardline appointments
Moragoda has served under both the United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). In the past, whilst serving as a negotiator during peace talks with the LTTE, Moragoda took credit for engineering the anti-LTTE Karuna paramilitary group and also claimed credit for the sinking of LTTE vessels during the peace talks.
Moragoda has also founded the think tank Pathfinder Foundation, which has a stated purpose of “changing attitudes towards globalisation, private ownership and the role of government”. The organisation has close ties to China.
Read more here.
