Rajiva Wijesinha, MP, in his column published in the Sunday Observer today, expressly notes that,
“I have now had an opportunity to read through what is supposed to be the Report of the Panel appointed by the UN Secretary General to advise him on what were termed accountability issued. The report has been leaked by the indefatigable Sanjana Hattotuwa, who does however note that he cannot confirm if this is the actual text. He adds that the UN has regretted the leak.”
Surprised that Mr. Wijesinha seemingly did not know the location where the UN Panel’s report was published and attributed the leak to this site’s founding Editor, he was asked to furnish any hard evidence to support his allegation and if there was none, to publish a full retraction and apology in the media.
An email with Mr. Wijesinha on this score is published here verbatim with his knowledge.
April 17, 2011 9:00:39 AM
Dear Sanjana
Thanks, I am so sorry to have upset you. The word ‘leaks’ may be misleading, but I think anyone reading the article would realize that you were not being held responsible for the report getting into the public domain. If you feel this needs to be made crystal clear, I will be happy to do so, though the Observer being a weekly, their carrying this may not serve your purpose. You are however welcome to publish this in Groundviews since I certainly did not intend to denigrate you. On the contrary, I was hoping you would appreciate the use of the word ‘indefatigable’.
I read the text however in an email that you had circulated, with the disclaimer that is noted. I had asked the ‘Observer’ whether they had the text, but they did not, so I was delighted when I was sent your email, which allowed me to make an initial response promptly. I did not get the ‘Island’ yesterday, though subsequently I saw Shamindra Fernando’s article. That certainly does not convey the full thrust of the leaked text to which I responded, as your email did.
Let me know if you want the above conveyed to the Observer with a particular request that they carry it as soon as possible.I will copy this to the editor so that he is also aware – if not so already – that I do not think you responsible as noted above.
Regards,
Rajiva
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April 17, 2011 10:10:03 AM
Rajiva,
I fully appreciated the tag describing me. Thank you for your quick response.
The allegation you make is a serious one, given the subject matter the report deals with and the charged context in which it was first leaked and will be subsequently released in. I do not know what email you are referring to, since I didn’t send any to you directly. However, at no stage has any email from me gone to anyone even remotely suggesting that I was the source of this leak, or had anything to do with its publication in the Island newspaper.
Since your statement was in the Sunday Observer, it should be retracted in the same manner and with equal emphasis, as soon as possible.
Best,
Sanjana