The strange case of an omission request

It is strange when a ministry requests an embassy to omit a name from a statement it had already sent.

On Thursday, a meeting took place between the Charge d’ Affaires of the Embassy of United Arab Emirates in Colombo, Humaid Altamimi, and the Minister of Public Security, Rear Admiral (Retired) Sarath Weerasekera at the Minister’s office in ‘Suhurupaya’, Battaramulla.

Joining the discussion were, Rohan Gunaratna, who goes as a Political Analyst and Expert on International Terrorism, Narada Samarasinghe, Senior Advisor at the Ministry of Public Security, S.M. Ansar Moulana, Coordinating Secretary to the Minister and Ashan Malalasekera, Advisor to the Minister on International Affairs. A statement was also followed from the UAE embassy. Later, the embassy was requested by the ministry not to include the name or photo of the controversial Rohan Gunaratna who took part in the meeting. One journalist asked a ministry official “When did you invite unofficial advisors to official meetings?”

There was no response from the other end. However, the photos of Gunaratna were still available on a tweet published by the embassy on its official Twitter handle.