Sri Lanka’s newly appointed president Ranil Wickremesinghe told Tamil National Alliance (TNA) lawmakers yesterday that he knew some of the parliamentarians had voted for him, despite the coalition announcing it was backing another candidate the night before the ballot.

In his first meeting with Tamil MPs, Wickremesinghe reportedly raised the issue of the vote which took place last month and was a secret ballot.

Delivering his first speech in parliament as president of Sri Lanka, Ranil Wickremesinghe laid out a roadmap for Sri Lanka which vowed to upload Buddhism; authorised the police to “maintain law and order”; eliminate state enterprises; support controversial investments; tackle corruption; strength Sri Lanka’s export economy; and provide a “political solution” for Tamils.

Protestors in Vavuniya staged demonstrations calling for the release of Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers Union, after he was arrested by Sri Lankan security forces yesterday.

In a recent statement, Human Rights Watch (HRW), condemned the Sri Lankan government for its use of emergency regulations to “harass and arbitrarily detain activists seeking political reform and accountability for the country’s economic crisis.”

South Asia director at HRW, Meenakshi Ganguly, stated that “the Sri Lankan government’s crackdown on peaceful dissent appears to be a misguided and unlawful attempt to divert attention from the need to address the country’s urgent economic crisis.”

Speaking in parliament, general secretary of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF), Selvarasa Kajendran, slammed the abuse of power by Sri Lanka’s president and stressed the need to abolish the “unitary system of governance in Sri Lanka and bring in a Federal Constitution based on the recognition of the Tamil nation”.

In his speech, he further stressed the need to “immediately dissolve this parliament and go for fresh elections” as the president does not have “even an iota of trust in the current Parliament”.

In a letter to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, human rights groups and Tamil civil society organisations request for her to publicly, to call upon the government of Singapore to prosecute former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

The statement comes as Singapore’s foreign minister has released a statement detailing that the war crimes accused former president was not granted “any privileges, immunity or hospitality”.

A spate of heavy rainfall has led to flooding across the in the Nawalapitiya area of Kandy, with at least three local Tamils swept away in the waters and still missing.

At least three Sri Lankan athletes who were part of the contingent competing in the Commonwealth Games that is currently taking place in the UK have gone missing, according to team managers, with reports they may look to seek asylum in the country.

Singapore’s foreign minister said Sri Lanka’s fleeing former president has not been granted “any privileges, immunity or hospitality” by his government, as calls mount for the accused war criminal to be prosecuted for genocide.

On August 2, 1989, up to 64 Tamil civilians were killed by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in Valvettithurai in a massacre that was termed “India’s My Lai”.

The massacre, which saw dozens killed, came on the background of escalating violence and rights abuses committed by Indian forces across the Tamil homeland. As Tamil militant groups continued hostilities with the IPKF, the Indian forces imposed a curfew on August 2, 1989, following an ambush attack.