In a column - ‘Acting’ President Priyankara on cloud nine - the SundayTimes.lk has asked if the GTF and the TNA were responsible for Botswana's vote of abstention.
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Publishing a photograph of representatives from the TNA and GTF meeting with the Botswana Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation Minister Phandu Skelemani, as well as officials of the South African government, the SundayTimes.lk wrote:
'Did the Britain-based Tamil Global Forum (GTF) and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in Sri Lanka jointly lobby Botswana to abstain from voting when the US resolution against Sri Lanka was taken up at the United Nations Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva on Thursday?
Just days before the voting, GTF’s Suren Surendran and TNA Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran, as the picture here reveals, met the Botswana Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation Minister Phandu Skelemani. Some officials of the South African government were also involved in the discussions.'