Ranil unhappy with Al Jazeera interview, questions integrity of panelists

By Yohan Perera   

Expressing his dissatisfaction with his interview with Al Jazeera which was broadcast yesterday, former President Ranil Wickremesinghe raised questions on the integrity of the panelists who were part of the interview.   
Speaking to the media soon after the interview was released, Wickremesinghe claimed that two of the three panelists, who joined broadcaster Mehdi Hasan, had pro-LTTE stances.   
“I was informed that Human Rights Lawyer and Former Commissioner of Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Ambika Sathkunanathan will participate in the interview. I was happy as I have known her, though our ideologies were different. However, I found out that there were two other panelists instead of Ms. Sathkunanathan. I have been told that the two of them had pro-LTTE links,” he said.   
The three panelists were former BBC Sri Lanka correspondent and author of ‘Counting the Dead’, Frances Harrison, former UK MP and envoy to Wickremesinghe Nirj Deva and Madura Rasaratnam, the Executive Director of human rights organization PEARL and Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics at City, University of London.   
“This interview was different. Interviews which I do with local media are different. They go live and everything good and bad comes out. However, Al Jazeera interviewed me for two hours but they have released a one-hour interview. The best part was missing,” Wickremesinghe said.   
“I was asked about the happenings during the reign of the Rajapaksas. I said I was not in power then. Also, I told them that the Mahanayaka of the Malwathu Chapter is the foremost religious leader in Sri Lanka while others including Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith is just another religious leader,” he added.