Webinar tomorrow on ‘War Clouds over Sri Lanka’

• Pathfinder Foundation ‘In Conversation’ webinar with India’s former Ambassador Lakhan Mehotra

Ambassador Lakhan Mehrotra, former High Commissioner of India in Sri Lanka, will be featured in the next Pathfinder ‘In Conversation’ webinar titled ‘War Clouds over Sri Lanka,’ scheduled at 2:30 p.m. IST/SLST on Thursday 28 October.

Ambassador Mehrotra will be interviewed by Pathfinder Foundation Chairman Bernard Goonetilleke. 

They will discuss the guest speaker’s publication ‘My Days in Sri Lanka’, which features his experience during the period 1989-1990, when he served as High Commissioner of India in Sri Lanka, during a politically turbulent era coupled with the separatist war in the north-east and an insurrection in the south.

His book, ‘My Days in Sri Lanka’ touches on the beginnings of the conflict, briefly follows on its evolution until it reached its peak in the early 1990s, and then takes the reader in detail through the author’s own experience in the country, nearly two years after the 1987 Indo-Lanka Agreement was signed and the Indian Peace Keeping Force had been inducted at the invitation of President J. R. Jayewardene, while President Premadasa, who succeeded President Jayewardene considered the presence of an Indian military contingent on his nation’s soil as an affront to its sovereignty. 

Soon after his election the President issued an ultimatum for the IPKF to leave its shores by 29 July 1989 and threatened military action against it if it failed do so, which brought the two nations to the brink of a military confrontation.

The High Commissioner’s intensive consultations and tireless interaction with the political leaders of Sri Lanka, the warring factions in the country’s north-east, and the Governments in New Delhi and Colombo helped signing of the joint communique on 28 July 1989 on arrangements for phased withdrawal of IPKF in March 1990 with due recognition of its contribution and sacrifices made to preserve the unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country.

‘My Days in Sri Lanka’ provides information that has never been divulged before. The ‘In Conversation’ webinar will delve into these experiences of the High Commissioner; whose rather brief assignment was from April 1989 to June 1990.

Following his assignment that covered the most turbulent period of Sri Lanka in modern times, Ambassador Mehrotra served as Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs and as Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Africa before his retirement in 1992. Later, he served as UN Secretary General’s Personal Representative in Cambodia from 1997 to 2000 and as Head of the UN Diplomatic Mission in Jakarta for Peace Talks between Indonesia and East Timor.

Those who are interested in retracing the history of Sri Lanka should register in advance via https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0nxJI2dPR8SCKK7k4hqDpg.