Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe downplayed accountability-related questions and refused to answer questions on the country's longstanding legacy of impunity during a heated interview with an international broadcaster that was aired today.
Aljazeera's Head to Head host Mehdi Hasan conducted the interview in a public event along with three other panelists- Frances Harrison, former BBC Sri Lanka correspondent, author of ‘Still Counting the Dead’ and Director, International Truth and Justice Project, Nirj Deva, former UK and EU MP and presidential envoy to Wickremesinghe and Madura Rasaratnam Executive Director, PEARL and Senior Lecturer at City, University of London.
In the hard-hitting interview that focused on former President Wickremesinghes' role as Head of State soon after ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country due to mass protests during the economic crisis saw Mr Wickremesinghe downplayed questions related to allegations of human rights violations during the final phases of war and his role as then Minister on Batalanda massacres during JVP uprisings in the 1980s.
When the interviewer posed the questions on wartime accountability and the failure of successive governments to ensure justice and truth for Tamil war victims citing UN reports, Mr Wickremesinghe replied: "No contest"
When the host pressed further he said:”UN has said that. I am not contesting. Next question please.”
The former President was visibly uncomfortable with the questions that were posed to him. At one point he said: “If I go to answer you will shout at me. Guilty as charged, no contest, or whatever it is. Get to the next question,"
Mr Hasan responded back: "It’s a little bit childish for a former president of the country to not be able to answer the question to which Mr Wickremesinghe shot back: “If I am childish, Gandhi is also childish. I am only doing what Gandhi did… You don’t know history,” said Wickremesinghe. “What can I do?”
Executive Director of PEARL Madura Rasaratnam pointed out that former President Wickremesinghe's attitude to the question about justice for the victims- the callousness, just exemplifies the attitude of the Sri Lankan establishment at large.
“There are unbearable similarities between what happened on the beaches of Mullivaikkal and what happened in Gaza. In both cases, you have populations hemmed against the sea, subject to humanitarian siege conditions, incessant aerial bombardment, atrociously high casualties,and medical procedures done without anaesthetic on purpose. The UN estimates about 40,000 people died in the space of 5 months. At the end of the war, 1,000 people were dying a day. Many, many more are unaccounted for.” she noted.
The nearly 50 minute long interview saw interventions from panellists also when Mr Wickremesinghe tried to downplay on accountability related issues particularly on Batalanda Commission Report claiming it cannot be considered as final report since it was not submitted to the Parliament when the host read excerpts from the report that links Mr Wickremesinghe's role in crushing JVP uprising.
Holding a copy of the report, Ms Harrison intervened to say that the report was published as 'ordered by then Government' for publication. (Northeastern Monitor/ March 6/ 2025)
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