T&T ambassador to the UN Therese Baptiste-Cornelis has not been to her Geneva mission office and even the Government was unable to contact her up to yesterday. She has been incommunicado since negative feedback arose on statements she made at a German symposium where she laced her address with wide-ranging personal anecdotes.
On Monday other Government officials, both in T&T?and Europe, said they were "not surprised " she has been difficult to find to respond on the criticism. Yesterday, acting Foreign Affairs Minister Suruj Rambachan said he had been trying to contact Baptiste-Cornelis to no avail. He said he would keep trying.
A woman who answered the phone at the Geneva mission declined to identify herself but said she was a mission official. Asked by T&T Guardian to contact Baptiste-Cornelis, the woman said the ambassador was not in office. She added: "?I cannot say where she is. No, I'm not authorised to give out any other contact number for her."
The official didn't know if Baptiste-Cornelis would be back in office yesterday, and said "maybe" she was out of Geneva. She said she expected the ambassador "should" be back in office on Friday but could not say if the her absence was due to business or not.
When asked to give her name or position at the mission, the woman said: "I don't think I can comment on my position. I am from the mission, yes, but I cannot give you my name." Contacted on criticisms made about Baptiste-Cornelis' statement and what might be the outcome, Communication Minister Jamal Mohammed said: "Enough has been said on that already."