Sri Lanka’s Eastern commander pays his dues

The newly appointed commander for the Sri Lankan army in the East started his posting by visiting three different senior Buddhist monks in the region in order to pay his “high regard”, reports an official military website.

Just hours after assuming office last month, Major General Aruna Jayasekera’s first trip was to the Welikanda Buddhist Centre, where he unveiled a newly constructed Buddhist stupa.

After that, the commander was “paying his high regard to the religious sentiments,” reports the military and called on three different senior Buddhist monks in the region to receive their blessings.

Local Tamils have long called for an end to the militarisation of the North-East, with the army often working closely with Sinhala Buddhist projects in the region, helping to construct Buddhist viharas and carrying out religious ceremonies. The US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report for 2016 said the continued construction of such sites in non-Buddhist areas, left the perception of “Buddhist Sinhalese religious and cultural imperialism”.