Interesting article on the Swiss embassy abduction case in Sri Lanka by @NZZ (in German). Worth a read altough many questions remain unanswered. https://twitter.com/sagisagt/status/1338950078871048192

The Swiss-Sri Lankan relationship is complex. Switzerland, home to a huge Tamil diaspora, has been one of the few western countries where the LTTE was never banned. That‘s why many Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist allege them to be „pro-Tamil/pro-Terrorist“.

This narrative was further strengthened when IP Nishantha de Silva fled to Switzerland after the Rajapakse election victory. Incl. by Manori Unambuwe, the current SL ambassador to Germany and Switzerland. But the Swiss gov still commits to a good relationship with Sri Lanka. Why?

Not only is the trade between these countries worth around 300 mio. $, the Swiss also pushed for a migration partnership with Sri Lanka, which would make deportations of failed asylum seekers much easier. An important agenda of the Swiss Migration office and politicians.

The migration partnership was established with the 2015 „unity“ government, which promised „good governance“ but miserably failed. Now an even more repressive and authoritarian government is back in power, but Switzerland still didn‘t reassess its partnership.

Part of that deal was also to support human rights with development and reconciliation projects by the Swiss in SL. But how will this be carried out under the Rajapakses, alleged war criminals who still trample on human rights? These are also questions that remain unanswered.