Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa has criticised the involvement of foreign governments in Sri Lanka's affairs, including visits and demands to demilitarise the North-East.

Mr Rajapaksa criticised the government for allowing the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to visit military facilities.

"Officials of foreign organisations have been permitted unfettered access to Sri Lanka’s military installations such as the Naval base in Trincomalee. This has resulted in an immediate danger posed to members of the intelligence wing of the Navy,

"Officials of foreign governments have visited our country and made demarches to Sri Lanka’s leadership about withdrawing the military from the Northern province. Decisions with regard to the deployment of troops are matters that should solely be within the sovereign jurisdiction of Sri Lanka. I cannot approve of officials of foreign governments declaring that they will remain ‘cautious and vigilant’ with regard to military matters in Sri Lanka," he said in parliament.

The former president further highlighted the widespread recent Maaveerar Naal commemorations across the North-East as calling for an independent state.

"We have to be mindful of the events which occurred on the so called Mahavir day marked recently. The black flags and the posters on the Jaffna campus openly deified Prabhakaran and called for the establishment of Eelam. The provincial council of the Northern Province ordered that schools be closed and hartals and hunger strikes were organised in the North to bring pressure to bear on the government to release dangerous terrorists," he charged.

He also slammed the "ill-advised" delisting of some Tamil diaspora groups.

"I have seen on the internet photographs of the Tamil Youth Organisation and the Canadian Tamil Congress both of which were recently de-proscribed, hoisting the Eelam flag and paying public homage to Prabhakaran. These are organisations which my government banned to safeguard Sri Lanka’s security but they have all been irresponsibly de-proscribed by the current administration," he said.

Mr Rajapaksa accused the government of "bending over backwards" to please foreign governments.

"The root cause of these problems is the ill-conceived foreign policy of the current administration which is based on bending over backwards to please certain foreign governments which are in turn influenced in their policy towards Sri Lanka by various Tamil Diaspora organisations which can deliver votes at elections in those countries,

"The government has also agreed amend the Public Security Ordinance and to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act and replace it with legislation acceptable to the foreign powers. I see this as a reckless dismantling of the country’s core security legislation."

See his full speech here.