Friday, 16 January 2015 00:00
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A prominent Sri Lankan diplomat and former Foreign Secretary H.M.G.S. Palihakkara has been appointed as the Governor of the Northern Province, the Government said yesterday.
The new administration has appointed a non-military civil servant as the Governor, the official Government website announced.
The announcement said Palihakkara was former Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations. He has served on the Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters.
He retired as the Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka in December 2006 after 38 years of civil and diplomatic service. Since the 1990s, he has served on a number of assignments to the United Nations in Geneva and New York. The former diplomat served as Acting Director-General and Deputy Director-General of Sri Lanka’s Peace Secretariat (SCOPP), which serviced the Norwegian-facilitated peace talks (2002) and subsequent ceasefire (2003).
Among other positions, he was Director-General of Multilateral Affairs at Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry, covering work related to preventative diplomacy, peace-building, arms control and non-proliferation.
He has also served as one of members of Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
