Presidential Secretariat denies newspaper report of clandestine meeting

The Presidential Secretariat has taken serious note of a news item carried in an English weekend newspaper to say that following a discussion President Chandrika Bandranaike Kumaratunga had with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, on the night a few days ago she attended a dinner party, at the residence of Sunethra Bandaranaike, where a secret discussion took place in the presence of Anura Bandaranaike, stated a media release by the Presidential Media Unit yesterday.

The Presidential media release denied this story as baseless and as a falsehood to mislead the public. This news report seems to have attempted to make out that certain remarks concerning Premier Rajapakse, made by Anura Bandaranaike at a public meeting on the following day was a sequel to this so-called secret discussion. It totally denied that President Kumaratunga attended a dinner party at all, on this day in question.

The media release deplored the news report as that made irresponsibly without proper scrutiny, when a heap of evidence was available to prove that during the period of time the purported discussion was alleged to have taken place, President Kumaratunga was at a lengthy discussion with Minister Maitripala Sirisena that stretched on to midnight.

The media release further said that President Kumaratunga did not meet Sunethra Bandaranaike since September 30 and that she last met Anura Bandaranaike on September 18 at New York.