Sri Lanka’s former president, addressing a 'Victory Day' event,  said the new government should be ashamed of ‘sabotaging’ Sri Lanka’s Victory Day celebration reports, DailyFT.lk.

Photographs: DailyFT.lk

Speaking at a ‘War Heroes Memorial’ ceremony in Colombo, Mahinda Rajapaksa, said,

“The day we defeated terrorism is the day of victory. However, this day should be celebrated as the Victory Day no as Remembrance Day.”

Sri Lanka’s President reiterated that international investigators would not be allowed into the country to probe war crimes allegations, reports Shanghai Daily.

“We have had talks with the UN on investigations. As a government we have told them we will not allow foreign investigators coming to Sri Lanka. However we will take advice from the UN and conduct a domestic investigation,” said Maithripala on Wednesday.

The promotion of the accused war criminal Major General Jagath Dias to Chief of Staff of Sri Lanka's army is a major setback for peacebuilding on the island, a group of NGOs has charged, calling on the government to revoke the position.

The European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) and TRIAL (Track Impunity Always), condemned the promotion.

“The promotion of a suspected war criminal to the post of the Army Chief of Staff is a serious setback for the Sri Lankan process of reconciliation announced by President Maithripala Sirisena on taking office in January”, the NGOs said in a joint statement released on Wednesday.

Tamils in the Qatari capital Doha commemorated those who died in the closing stages of the armed conflict in 2009, Pathivu reported.

The faces of those who attended were blacked out for security reasons by the news website, as the virtually all Tamils in the Middle Eastern country are temporary workers who will return to Sri Lanka at some point.

The Tamil National People’s Front moved their planned Mullivaikal remembrance event to Vaddamarachi East after a court order banned the organisation from leading commemoration events at Mullivaikal.

The event was held at the Vembadi Murugan temple where people lit candles of remembrance and lay flowers paying respects to those that had died.

The Tamil National Alliance decided to boycott Sri Lanka’s military parade, marking the end of the armed conflict.

TNA spokesperson Suresh Premachandran told the Sunday Leader the party has taken a clear decision not to attend the event, however added he was not able to comment on behalf of TNA leader R. Sampanthan and TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran.

“The other members of the TNA have taken a clear position since the beginning not to take part in the victory day celebrations. It is not a day for the Tamils to celebrate. Many Tamil nationals died at the last phase of the war. It may be a day for the Sri Lankan Army to celebrate, but it is not a day that Tamils can celebrate. Personally I will not attend the event that is to be held in Matara for victory celebrations,” Mr Premachandran said.