Know the Truth Behind the Video, Shared as President Ranil’s Vehicle Convoy in Kandy? (Video)

A video went viral on social media claiming to be the vehicle convoy of President Ranil participating in a pre-Independence Day celebration in Kandy. These posts were shared with mixed reactions, and the Factcrescendo team’s investigation found these video posts to be miscaptioned.

Social Media Posts

This clip was shared among Facebook users titled “King Ranil in Kandy Today,” implying that President Wickremasinghe was grazing the through the Kandy streets with a fleet of luxury vehicles accompanying full police guard. 

Facebook

Videos were viral in Facebook.

And viral on WhatsApp too.

Many had wondered what this occasion really was! So let’s look at the facts…

Fact Check

On careful observation of the video frames, we can see that the vehicles in this motorcade had markings to indicate certain country name cards, implying that dignitaries representing such countries could have been traveling. Below are some extracts from the video showing vehicles with the name board of Canada, Sudan, etc.

Taking a cue from this, we checked whether there was a ceremony in the Kandy area recently involving foreign diplomats. We came across the below video titled “High Commissioners who went to Kandy via Car Parade,” shared by a mainstream media channel.

We contacted the President`s Media Division to get more information about this function. They confirmed that diplomats representing 17 countries who were accredited to Sri Lanka handed over their credentials to President Ranil Wickramasinghe, and the event took place at the Presidential Palace in Kandy on February 02. The personnel who traveled in the fleet of cars were, in fact, such dignitaries, clarified President Media division.

Here is a statement by President’s Office that strongly rejects the reports about the diplomatic event in Kandy

Ambassadors from Cote d’Ivoire, Uruguay, Mongolia, Serbia, Sudan, Armenia, North Macedonia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Sweden, and Ecuador, along with High Commissioners from Jamaica, Tanzania, Malawi, Canada, Malaysia, and Maldives, handed over their credentials to the President Wickremasinghe at this function. 

We inquired Kandy Police too about this incident. The OIC of the Police confirmed that President Wickremesinghe was part of the vehicle convoy, which was viral on social media. 

Also, we noticed that when new ambassadors were appointed in the past, similar ceremonies were held. However, most such events were held mainly at the President’s office in Colombo.

President Ranil Wickremasinghe held a similar ceremony for the newly appointed High Commissioner of Australia and Nepalese Ambassador back in August 2020, as seen in the below video. This event was held at the President’s Office, Colombo, with a similar guard of honor.

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Many had reacted angrily to viral video posts stating how justified it was to spend so much money on getting foreign diplomats to travel to Kandy. So we contacted the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ali Sabry, to seek the reasons behind this event getting shifted to Kandy this time. Below is his response.

“We wanted the 17 heads of mission accredited to Sri Lanka to go around SL and report to their capitals that Sri Lanka is ready for tourism and ready for business. Also, to build a positive image of SL and replace negative optics around the world and showcase that we are a country with good infrastructure, great history, good people, and to promote the international community to work with us.”

This is how the foreign minister shared photos on his Twitter account depicting the new foreign diplomats visiting the Sacred Tooth Relic Temple in Kandy.

Follow us and stay up to date with our latest fact checks.

Facebook | Twitter |Instagram | Google News | TikTok

Conclusion

According to our investigation, the video-related viral claims stating the footage depicting President Ranil Wickremesinghe`s vehicle convoy is false and misleading the public. This vehicle convoy comprised foreign high commissioners and ambassadors accredited to Sri Lanka, who had got their appointments recently and had visited the Presidential Palace in Kandy to hand over their credentials from President Wickremesinghe.