Jun 25

Lankan envoy found dead in Sanaa Hotel

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Sri Lankan Ambassador to the Kingdom Abdul Ageed Mohamed Marleen was found dead in his hotel room in Sanaa where he was attending a regional conference on Tuesday.

Marleen, 73, was in the Yemeni capital to attend a meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation that started on Sunday.

Manisha Gunasekera, who was representing the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry at the conference, said Marleen did not turn up for a session on Tuesday morning and his prolonged absence prompted the authorities to open his room with the help of Sanaa police. “They found him dead in his bed,” said Gunasekera.

Officials in Sanaa said Marleen died in his sleep due to natural causes.

Hussein Bhaila, a Sri Lankan deputy minister who arrived in Sanaa this morning, told Arab News he formally identified Marleen’s body at a morgue. He said arrangements were being made by the Foreign Ministry to take the body to Colombo according to the wishes of Marleen’s family.

Sabarullah Khan, deputy chief of mission at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh, flew to Sanaa yesterday afternoon to oversee the repatriation of the body. The body is expected to arrive in Colombo by evening on a flight from Sanaa via Dubai.

Marleen’s wife, Fatima, left for Colombo last night by SriLankan Airlines to attend the funeral. Marleen is survived by a son, Shahran (San Francisco), and three daughters, Sheroon (Brisbane), and Shezoon and Shemoon (London).

Abdul Latif Mohammed Lafeer, Sri Lankan consul general in Jeddah, said the death was an irreparable loss to the Sri Lankan community.

Fareeda Wahab, principal of the Sri Lankan International School in Jeddah, described the death as shocking news for the community. “He was a perfect gentleman who was dedicated to his work and treated all alike irrespective of their status,” she said. The school will hold a special assembly to mourn Marleen’s death.

The Sri Lankan Embassy has started a condolence book that will be open until Tuesday. The Sri Lankan Expatriates Society in Riyadh will hold a condolence meeting at the embassy at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow. The Sri Lankan Consulate in Jeddah will hold a similar meeting on Saturday evening.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said he was saddened to learn of Marleen’s untimely demise. “Marleen served Sri Lanka with great distinction as our envoy in Saudi Arabia. He was a highly respected and much loved personality both among his colleagues in the diplomatic fraternity and the 550,000-strong Sri Lankan community in the Kingdom,” he said.

“Since his appointment as our ambassador to Saudi Arabia, he made significant endeavors to build bridges between the two countries and peoples. Only last month, Ambassador Marleen founded the Sri Lanka-Saudi Arabia Friendship Society.”

Marleen, a prominent Colombo-based lawyer with 40 years experience, assumed duties as ambassador in Riyadh in March last year.

Mohammed Rasooldeen | Arab News

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Jun 24

Sri Lanka Ambassador to Saudi Arabia passes away

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Sri Lanka’s  Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced  the death of it’s Ambassador to Riyadh,  Abdul Ageed Mohamed  Marleen PC  on 23rd,  while he was on an official visit in the Republic of Yemen to attend the IOR-ARC Ministerial Meeting.  He was 71 years at the time of his untimely demise.

Ambassador Marleen was appointed as Sri Lanka’s envoy to Saudi Arabia on 24th March 2008. Prior to being appointed as Republic of Yemen, Ambassador Marleen had represented Sri Lanka in many international conferences.

In 1988 he chaired the United Nations Special Committee to investigate into ‘Israeli practices affecting human rights in the occupied territories’.

Ambassador Marleen an old boy of Zahira College Colombo took oath as an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Ceylon on 23rd June 1966.  He held positions of President of the Moor’s Islamic Cultural Home, President of the All Ceylon Moor’s Association and the Secretary General of the Afro – Asian Solidarity Association of Sri Lanka, a body affiliated to the Afro – Asian People’s Solidarity Organisation (AAPSO).  He was also a founder and life member of the SLFP Lawyers Association.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama have expressed their deepest condolences to his wife, Mrs. Marleen and the children.

The remains of the late Ambassador are expected to be flown to Sri Lanka shortly and will be received by Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama. The funeral arrangements  yet to be announced.

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May 20

Mistakes of Prabhakaran

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Prabhakaran’s decision to take on the Indian Army, and eventually force it to return home, was a turning point in his life. It made him become bigger-even if only in his own eyes. It gave him a bloated ego that convinced him he could get away with anything; this was the beginning of his end.

Following are some of the major mistakes that caused failure in his mission towards Eelam.

  • Assassination of Rajiv Gandhi is his first and biggest blunder.
  • Losing Karuna, and Karuna joining the Govt.,
  • Failing to embrace politics and gave dominance to the gun.
  • He did not know when to strike a deal, all the Presidents including Chandrika Bandaranaike and Ranil Wickremasinghe gave him reasonable political options, and even when the Norwegians brokered one that handed him federalism on a platter, he turned down all offers saying nothing but separate nation.
  • Separating the Muslims from his territory was another blander that he did in his life; otherwise he could have had more support from international community while he was trapped in the jungle keeping civilians as human shield.

All these mistakes of Prabhakaran added more power to the President Mahinda Rajapaksa who appointed his brothers to the key positions in the defense that gave the Govt. full trust and no foul play to eliminate Prabhakaran.

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