Bell Pottinger is the PR firm that has taken, among its clientele, the wife of Syria’s President Assad, the Pinochet dictatorship, the Lukashenko dictatorship, and the Bahraini government.
Bell Pottinger is overseen by Lord Bell, who was previously an advisor to Margaret Thatcher.
Bell Pottinger also represented the Sri Lankan government, doing PR for them, following Sri Lanka’s war with Tamil forces in which Tamil civilians were intentionally targeted.
Sri Lanka paid Bell Pottinger £3,000,000 for PR, as the BBC reported one year ago:
It is thought the firm was also employed in Sri Lanka’s attempts to prevent the UN secretary general appointing an advisory panel on alleged war crimes committed during the civil war.
In the UK, the group’s main focus is countering what the Sri Lankan government says is propaganda by pro-Tamil Tiger groups in the influential Tamil diaspora.
Last week the firm helped promote the UK visit of Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Prof GL Peiris, who gave the keynote speech at London’s International Institute of Strategic Studies.
Channel4 reports:
Three highly placed sources in Sri Lanka independently allege that Adam Werritty’s frequent visits to the island were to do with arms deals – and that he stayed there, it’s alleged, at Sri Lankan government expense.
The sources have claimed that Mr Werritty acted as an interlocutor for a senior figure in the regime of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. This senior figure reportedly discussed with Mr Werritty whether he could lobby the British government over the supply of arms, security equipment and aviation parts.
The Daily Telegraph reports:
Last year, Mr Werritty arranged and attended a meeting at the MoD for GL Peiris, the Sri Lankan foreign minister.
Here’s the Guardian on Werrity and Bell Pottinger:
Lord Bell, whose public relations firm Bell Pottinger worked for the Sri Lankan government up until the end of last year, said that Werritty had attended some meetings that his firm had held with the Sri Lankan government but he could not say in what capacity or why he was present. After a big show of support for Fox in the Commons on Monday, there were some private signs that Tories were still disturbed by what they had heard, and were suspending judgment.
Surely Lord Bell should know why Werrity was there!
Sri Lanka paid Bell Pottinger for PR. Werrity travelled alongside Liam Fox, yet Werritty attended meetings for lobbyists for the Sri Lankan government. These lobbyists were trying to block the UN investigating accusations of war crimes, in the aftermath of the war with the Tamils.
Liam Fox travelled to Sri Lanka with Adam Werritty in order to discuss politics with senior Sri Lankan officials. One Sri Lankan official – likely the Foreign minister GL Peiris – claims to have recruited Werritty as a lobbyist for the Sri Lankan government. Werritty was portrayed by Liam Fox as a UK government official, when he was not.
Update:
The Guardian has updated its article to include this quote from Lord Bell:
“I’ve known him [Werritty] for a number of years, people here have seen him at meetings. I’ve known him for a long time – Liam Fox is a friend of 30 years.”
Bell said he had never heard of the Sri Lanka development trust and there was no financial relationship between Bell Pottinger, the trust and Werritty.
