"After graduating from Colgate in 1963, I spent two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal, then a year of graduate study in South Asian affairs at the University of Pennsylvania, and another year in Nepal on a student Fulbright grant. He further added "On returning from Nepal in 1967, I joined the State Department and was assigned - you guessed it - to Sri Lanka, where I was a junior officer trainee until 1970. I learned the language, Sinhala, was able to spend another seven months in 1995 resurrecting that language ability. I use the language a lot, with Buddhist monks and village people in particular. English is widely used in government and the commercial sector of the economy. Between 1970 and December 1995 I served in India, Bahrain and Nepal in positions of increasing seniority, and for the past 13 years I was in Washington in a series of jobs. These included three deputy assistant secretary positions as well as coordinator for counter-terrorism. The last position carried with it ambassadorial rank, though I was based in Washington."
Nepal RPCV A Peter Burleigh was taken out of his retirement by the Obama administration early this year, made him the Charge' de Affairs in the New Delhi American embassy
Peter Burleigh
Senior U.S. Foreign Service Officer was taken out of his retirement by the Obama administration early this year, made him the Charge' de Affairs in the New Delhi American embassy, and will be the Deputy Chief of Mission when Ambassador Tim Roemer takes over the Mission in August.
Burleigh has had several diplomatic tours in South Asia and was ambassador in Sri Lanka from 1995 to 1997.
He had his first exposure to the sub-continent as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal in the early 1960s. From the Peace Corps, he gravitated to the State Department and spent some years of his diplomatic career in Nepal, India and Sri Lanka. As a junior diplomat, he had served in the US Embassy in Colombo from 1968 to 1970 and in New Delhi from 1973 to 1975. He also served as the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka from 1995 to 1997. In one of the web sites of the old Peace Corps volunteers, he had entered the following post about himself: "After graduating from Colgate in 1963, I spent two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal, then a year of graduate study in South Asian affairs at the University of Pennsylvania, and another year in Nepal on a student Fulbright grant.
He further added "On returning from Nepal in 1967, I joined the State Department and was assigned - you guessed it - to Sri Lanka, where I was a junior officer trainee until 1970. I learned the language, Sinhala, was able to spend another seven months in 1995 resurrecting that language ability. I use the language a lot, with Buddhist monks and village people in particular. English is widely used in government and the commercial sector of the economy. Between 1970 and December 1995 I served in India, Bahrain and Nepal in positions of increasing seniority, and for the past 13 years I was in Washington in a series of jobs. These included three deputy assistant secretary positions as well as coordinator for counter-terrorism. The last position carried with it ambassadorial rank, though I was based in Washington."
When he was posted in the US Embassy in New Delhi from 1973 to 75, the Indian Communists and anti-US magazines like the Blitz used to accuse him of being a CIA officer working under a diplomatic cover. While it is difficult to prove this, it needs to be noted that he had served as the Counter-Terrorism Coordinator in the US State Department in Washington DC in 1991-92. Past holders of this post had a CIA or FBI background.
Mr. Burleigh who knows principal players in Sri Lanka politics and civic leaders with a very good knowledge of socio-political developments in that country will undoubtedly be a ‘counseling' hand to Ambassador Roemer when the United States commences its Sri Lanka agenda in New Delhi to ‘rope' the Indian political establishment, which has demonstrated its friendliness toward the Rajapaksa regime and somewhat ‘hands-off' policy, for a greater involvement in Sri Lankan affairs.
