{"id":104689,"date":"2013-09-10T13:13:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-10T07:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=104689"},"modified":"2013-09-10T14:24:09","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T08:54:09","slug":"ranil-writes-to-navi-clarify-call-for-removal-of-ds-statue-and-buddhist-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ranil-writes-to-navi-clarify-call-for-removal-of-ds-statue-and-buddhist-flag\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranil Writes To Navi: Clarify Call For Removal Of DS Statue And Buddhist Flag"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">Leader of the Opposition and United National Party Leader <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Ranil+Wickremasinghe&amp;x=6&amp;y=3\">Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/a><\/span> has penned a note to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Navi+Pillay&amp;x=10&amp;y=3\">Navi Pillay<\/a><\/span>, requesting her clarification on remarks made by Secretary to the Ministry of Defence\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Gotabaya+Rajapaksa&amp;x=8&amp;y=3\">Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> to a Sinhala language newspaper published last Sunday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/press-freedom-colombo-telegraph-blocking-discussed-with-pillay-says-unp-2\/ranil-navi-1\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-102878\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-102878\" title=\"Ranil Navi 1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Ranil-Navi-1-300x175.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"175\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Ranil-Navi-1-300x175.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Ranil-Navi-1-800x467.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Ranil-Navi-1.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The Secretary to the Ministry of Defence told the Irida Lankadeepa in an interview last weekend that during the UN Envoy&#8217;s visit with the President, she had requested the removal of the statue of former Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake from Independence Square, Wickremesinghe says in his letter to Pillay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">&#8220;As you are aware the Rt. Honourable D.S. Senanayake is not only the founding father of independent Sri Lanka but he is also the founding leader of my party. The newspaper further stated that you requested the removal of a Buddhist flag from the Independence Square,&#8221; Wickremesinghe writes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Opposition Leader who attached a copy of the newspaper interview to his letter, said he hoped for early clarification on the matter.<\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ranil-writes-to-navi-clarify-call-for-removal-of-ds-statue-and-buddhist-flag\/ranil-navi\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-104690\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-104690\" title=\"Ranil Navi\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Ranil-Navi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"598\" height=\"864\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Ranil-Navi.jpg 664w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Ranil-Navi-207x300.jpg 207w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":102878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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