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Ambassador to Turkey says GL did not interrupt her
Bharathi Wijeratne, Sri Lanka’s newly appointed ambassador to Turkey, has responded to references made to her in last week’s political commentary in the Sunday Times. She writes:
“This is with reference to the article reported by your political editor in the opinion column, with regard to the ‘Sri Lankan Ambassadors study tour’ which refers to me in the Sunday Times dated 15th July 2012.
“Sir, I would like to categorically state that Hon. G.L. Peiris, Minister of External Affairs never interrupted me by saying ‘we cannot entertain comments at this stage because of time constraints, so let’s move on.’ You could contact the Hon. Minister of External Affairs, Mr. G.L. Peiris for clarification on this.
“I was responding to the Hon. Minister’s speech in which he requested us all to be media friendly in the countries where we are stationed.
“I would very much appreciate if you could carry the correction in the next edition of the Sunday Times.”
Our Political Editor adds: Firstly, as Ms. Wijeratne suggests, the ambassadors were not on a ‘study tour’. She has either failed to read the official programme.
The event, as the programme clearly states, was a “residential workshop for Heads of Sri Lanka Missions/Post Abroad.” It was not only for ambassadors but also for high commissioners and consul generals representing Sri Lanka.
On the other point, I would like to state quite unequivocally that External Affairs Minister, G.L. Peiris did make the remarks. There is no need for me to contact him now since I have verified the facts from different Sri Lankan envoys and others before the commentary went to print.
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