Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, warns against division in response to the coronavirus pandemic stating that Sri Lankan’s have only one option to “pull together or perish”.
This stark warning has raised concerns from civil society actors as military surveillance, intimidation and harassment of dissent voices ramps up.
On Friday, the home of Tamil lawyer, Roy Dilaksan, was attacked. This follows his successful appeal against a Jaffna court isolation order against members of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF). The TNPF stated that Dilaksan case was one of 20 cases where members reported threats from the military. There has been a surge in intimidation, surveillance, and harassment of Tamil activists, with the TNPF offices being surrounded by armed military officials on multiple occasions.
Rajapaksa statement further chastised the previous administration stating that his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, “inherited an economy that was in shambles”. He further stated that due to the virus “all countries will be facing economic hardship and mass unemployment”.
During his statement, Rajapaksa compared the success of Germany’s response to that of Sri Lanka and further chastised the previous administration stating:
“Everyone knows what would have happened if the yahapalana [good governance] cabal had been in power when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Sri Lanka”.
In touting the successes of his brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa drew upon the brutal civil war and stated that the Prime Ministers’ team had presided over the greatest economic boom since independence despite impossible odds between 2006 and 2014. This comes despite overwhelming concern from human rights organisations over Rajapaksa’s heavily militarised response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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