Writing in Foreign Policy magazine, Professor Neil DeVotta warns of “Rajapaksa rule well into the future” and possible anti-Muslim pogroms “in the days ahead unless the international community bands together to protect them”. 

The Sri Lankan army blocked local farmers in Mullaitivu from assessing and clearing their land to cultivate it for maize and rice, earlier this month.

Members of the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) led an investigation into the issue and met with the farmers from the Othiyamalai, Erukalampilavu and Thanikallu areas in Mullaitivu. The TNPF leader and parliamentarian, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and TNPF parliamentarian, Selvarajah Kajendren, held discussions with the farmers about the actions of the military and probed into the situation.

Sri Lanka’s Defence Secretary, and accused war criminal, Kamal Gunaratne, has delivered a speech in which he vowed that he would not permit room for separatism or extremism in the North-East as well as tackling “separatist” voices abroad.

Photo of Justice Minister Ali Sabry with President Gotabya Rajapaksa

Justice Minister Ali Sabry has reported that moves are underway to abolish the 19^th Amendment of Sri Lanka’s constitution, which limits the power of the Presidency, and to bring in the 20^th Amendment which will be debated in parliament by mid-September.

“We are taking steps to abolish any clauses in the 19th Amendment that are detrimental to the country and amend them accordingly,” Sabry reported.

Sri Lanka’s newly appointed Foreign Secretary, retired Navy admiral Jayanath Colombage, has announced that he would re-evaluate Sri Lanka’s foreign policy which had been orientated towards the western hemisphere.

Former Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena vowed to “dedicate himself towards developing the country and building a prosperous economy as part of the new government under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s leadership” at a media briefing in Polannaruwa, last week.

Sirisena said that he would work “towards creating a civili[s]ed society as part of the new government” and that he was “thankful towards all officials of the Election Commission, officers of health authorities, police and other officers who committed themselves towards ensuring a peaceful election in the country.”

^{Photograph: Ministry of Foreign Relations, Sri Lanka}

The Ambassador-Designate of Sri Lanka to Russia, Prof. M.D. Lamawansa visited Russia’s Moscow Clinical Centre to gift 46 boxes of Ceylon tea as gratitude from Sri Lanka to the medical staff combating COVID-19 and congratulated Russia for “being the first country in the world to produce a vaccine against the coronavirus.”

Sri Lanka’s former president Chandrika Kumaratunga declared that she “doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry” when looking at the state of the  Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), in post-election comments where she praised Mahinda Rajapaksa as a “strong leader”.

Reacting to Sri Lanka’s parliamentary elections last week, where Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s (SLPP) swept through the South and gained a two-thirds majority in parliament, Kumaratanga bemoaned the demise of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

Elected parliamentarians from the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) and Thamizh Makkal Thesiya Kootani (TMTK) paid tribute at Mullivaikal this week, in poignant ceremonies ahead of the lawmakers taking up office.

TMTK leader and former Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran paid his respects at the site last week, where tens of thousands of Tamils were killed in a Sri Lankan military offensive in 2009.