According to The Daily News Report, Peiris delivered a largely attended lecture at the Department of Peace and Conflict Resolution in the University of Uppsala, the oldest university in Sweden. The subject of the lecture was "The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka: viable responses at the political and constitutional levels." He presented his devolution of power as "Federalism".

According to the same report, the Minister was received by the Rector of Uppsala University.

What is the truth behind this story?

Yes, Peiris came to Uppsala University on 22 April to give a lecture at the Peace and Conflict Institute, but he was not received by the chair-holder or professor in peace research and he was not received by the Rector as stated in the Government paper The Daily News.

The lecture was organised quickly ad hoc. It was not possible to send out invitations.

Heavily guarded, Peiris held his lecture for a crowd hidden away in a huge building. A group of academics who had done research on Lanka for decades could not attend, because the lecture was not announced.

I would have liked to ask him why he does not speak about "Federalism" at home and why he does not put the word "Federalism" in the Draft Constitution.

There was no following up of his lecture by comments in the news. Actually, it did not matter whether he was there or not. He left no trace-except for a scandal caused by his anti-academic behaviour.

What was baffling about his coming and going was the hush-hush, the whispering, the lack of information about his whereabouts, the haste, the avoidance of getting questions - and of me personally.

In a Sinhala paper, in the Divayina, was mentioned that allegedly "a summit" at Uppsala Unversity had decided not to invite me because I was allegedly supportive of the LTTE.

The truth about the Uppsala summit is that there was no such summit.

The professor of peace and conflict research in Uppsala wrote to me: "I can assure you that I have not participated in such a summit and as far as I know there exists not any such organisation within the university, definitely not within my institute. There is also no summit outside the university that can decide who can participate in seminars arranged by the university".

The Rector for Uppsala University, whom Peiris never met, wrote to me that the statement that Peiris met him is wrong and that he knows nothing about excluding me from Peiris’ lecture. He also wrote to me that he is worried about all this odd information.

The "summit" was evidently an internal "summit" consisting of Peiris - and of who else?

I did not know that I was so important in Lankan government circles being made object of a summit meeting! I am now expecting a wireless call from Velupillai Pirapakaran in the Vanni making me mamanitan!

I can only smile at Peiris’ bizarre performance. Having come to Uppsala, he quickly hid like a mouse in his hole and blocked all entrances.

Who is afraid of Peter Schalk?

G L Peiris is afraid, poor fellow, who boosts himself by spreading inflated illusions abroad about his alleged democratic political programme, by lying about whom he met, and by exaggerating about his academic "success" in Uppsala. His visit here was a catastrophy.

He is most welcome back to Uppsala, but only if he follows our academic traditions of showing openness and integrity. It will be a pleasure to question him-if he dares to come out of his hole.