The former head of Sri Lanka’s army announced that he will be running for president in the island’s upcoming elections, as the electoral contest between Sinhala Buddhist candidates begins to heat up.

A parliamentarian from the Tamil National Alliance said Tamils will have “have no choice but to boycott the election given the step motherly treatment that the [Sri Lankan] government gives them”.

Kilinochchi MP S Sritharan made the comments to NewsInAsia, as Sri Lanka gears up for a presidential election for November.

When asked about the United National Party’s (UNP) candidate Sajith Premadasa pledge of devolving powers, senior Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) member C V K Sivagnanam questioned the sincerity of his election promises.

Sri Lanka’s archaeology department has been accused of willfully ignoring the decaying condition of the Dutch Fort of Mullaitivu, which once stood as a testament to the bravery of Pandara Vanniyan, the last chieftain of the Vanni known for his resistance against colonial rule.

The fort, which was captured by Pandara Vanniyan from the British on 25 August 1803, is currently under the administration of the government archaeology department. 

Several explosives were discovered buried in polythene in Puthukudiyiruppu on Saturday.

The explosives were uncovered during the ploughing of a paddy field.

Puthukudiyiruppu police identified 8 claymore mines and 60 detonators.

The Sri Lankan government slammed the United Nations over its decision to ban “non-essential” Sri Lankan troops on peacekeeping missions, in a meeting this week where officials defended a military official accused of war crimes.

The UN announced that in response to the appointment of accused war criminal Shavendra Silva as head of the Sri Lanka’s military, they would not be calling on any further Sri Lankan troops to serve as peacekeepers.

Sri Lanka’s ruling United National Party (UNP) has nominated its deputy leader and Sri Lanka’s housing minister, Sajith Premadasa to run in the presidential election on Nov.16 with the hopes of winning over Buddhist nationalists.

Reuters notes that Premada is vying for support from Sri Lanka’s Buddhist majority as will be his opponent Gotabaya Rajapaksa. He has openly shown support for hard-line Buddhist nationalists who have decried the need for an international investigation into human rights abuses.

Marking 32 years since the death of Lt Col Thileepan, thousands of Tamils across the North-East attended commemoration events held throughout the day.

Today marks 32 years since the death of Lt Col Thileepan, a political wing leader of the LTTE who fasted to death, in a protest appealing to the Indian government to honour pledges made to the Tamil people.

Thileepan began his fast on the September 15, 1987, with 100,000 people gathered around the historic Nallur Kandwaswamy Temple in Jaffna. As he began his strike he put forward 5 demands to the Indian government.

Thirty-two years on, Tamils continue to call for the demands made by Thileepan. 

After a Buddhist mob led by Sinhala extremists defied a Sri Lankan court order this week, the Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) said rule of law on the island is “secondary to Buddhist hegemony,” in a statement released on Wednesday.

Despite local opposition and a court injunction, a controversial Buddhist monk was cremated in the grounds of a Hindu temple in Mullaitivu on Monday. The unlawful cremation created a tense situation in the Semmalai Neeraviyadi area as locals and Tamil lawyers who attempted to confront the perpatrators were assaulted and verbally abused by Buddhist monks and their Sinhalese supporters, all while police looked on and provided security to the monks.

Lawyers across the North-East have continued to boycott court activities to protest the ‘lack of respect’ for the judiciary shown by Sinhala Buddhist monks and Sri Lankan police, as the former directly disobeyed a court injunction and cremated a monk in the grounds of a Hindu temple with the explicit support of police, and also assaulted Tamil lawyers who had worked to secure the injunction.