The head of Sri Lanka’s army and accused war criminal Shavendra Silva, landed himself in trouble with the country’s election commission this week, after he endorsed former defence secretary and fellow accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa ahead of the island’s presidential elections.

“We highly regret this advertisement,” said Sri Lanka’s Election Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya.

<p>Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Presidential candidate, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, will reject demands laid out by Tamil political parties, SLPP member,&nbsp;Wimal Weerawansa said today.</p> <p>"Our Presidential candidate will not even look at the conditions in the memorandum," Weerawana said at an election rally today in Horana. He added that the Tamil parties are attempting to merge the North and East and push for self-determination.</p> <p>Earlier this week, five Tamil political parties signed a memorandum, highlighting key demands of Tamils, which are to be presented to the two presidential candidates.</p>

<p>The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has pledged Tamils a solution to their concerns within two years if they win the upcoming elections.</p> <p>SLPP parliamentarian, Namal Rajapaksa tweeted:</p> <p>"From Black July to the end of the war in 2009, #SriLanka's Tamil community has faced many problems. Following the victory of the @PodujanaParty at the upcoming #PresPollSL, we hope to find solutions to these pressing concerns of the Tamil community during the first two years."</p>

Former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga praised the history of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in a statement this week, where she urged party members to “think wisely” before voting in the upcoming election.

Kumaratunga, who is accused of overseeing the bombing of schools and churches during her tenure as president, slammed the current Sri Lankan president for allowing the party to back Gotabaya Rajapaksa in next month’s presidential election.

She stated Sirisena had “betrayed the party to the conspiracists” in a statement and went on to laud the achievements of the SLFP.

Sinhalese majoritarianism remains a problem in Sri Lanka, said anthropologist Syed Mohammad Ali, calling on it to be “rolled back” to achieve reconciliation on the island.

Writing in The Express Tribune, an English-language daily based in Pakistan, he compared the history of the island to that of Rwanda, stating that...

<p>The Attorney General has instructed to charge three suspects, including former Navy Commander, Admiral Wasantha&nbsp;Karannagoda, in connection to the&nbsp;abduction of eleven&nbsp;predominantly Tamil youths in 2008 - 2009.&nbsp;</p> <p>Lieutenant Commander Nilantha&nbsp;Sampath&nbsp;Munasinghe and businessman Anton Fernando are the other two suspects to be indicted.</p> <p>Nishantha Silva, the Criminal Investigations Department's (CID) OIC, informed the court that a senior government counsel is drafting the charges against Wasantha Karannagoda.</p>

A test flight to Jaffna from Chennai landed at Palaly airport yesterday, marking the first successful commercial flight from India to the Jaffna peninsula in decades.

The Alliance Air flight made its arrival, ahead of Palaly airport’s official commercial opening on Thursday.

Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary laughed off blame for the disappearance and execution of surrendering Tamils during the final phase of the armed conflict a decade ago, claiming he had no responsibility over what happened.

“I was not the commander of the army,” Gotabaya Rajapaksa told a press conference yesterday when asked about surrendering Tamils who had disappeared. In the same press conference, Rajapaksa had earlier rejected a UN Human Rights Council resolution on accountability for mass atrocities committed during his tenure as defence secretary.

<p>On May 21 2009, Sarojini Naganathan had a final&nbsp;phone call with her son, Rajiv Naganathan, a 19 year old who was&nbsp;abducted on September 17 2008, reports the Sunday Observer in a piece this week.&nbsp;</p> <p>Rajiv was one&nbsp;of 11 predominantly Tamil youths&nbsp;at the centre of an abduction for ransom racket run by Sri Lanka Navy personnel.</p>

The spectre of the LTTE is “is always raised by the Sinhala-majority political parties, ahead of an election” notes R.K. Radhakrishnan in Frontline magazine on Tuesday, after a former Tamil fighter was arrested in Kilinochchi this week.

"Although there has been no terror incident involving the Tamils in Sri Lanka since the conclusion of the war between the Sri Lankan state and the Tamil Tigers in 2009, the LTTE bogey is always raised by the Sinhala-majority political parties, ahead of an election,” he writes. “It is no different for the presidential election to be held on November 16.”