British lawmaker and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils, Elliot Colburn wrote to the Attorney General of Singapore yesterday, calling on the country’s authorities to arrest former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and “exercise universal jurisdiction for grave abuses of the Geneva Conventions”. 

Colburn told Attorney General Lucien Wong; 

Even as political and economic turmoil rages in the South of the island, in the North-East Sri Lankan troops continued to intrude into the everyday life of civilians as the state intensified its militarisation of the region. 

Sri Lanka’s besieged former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa will reportedly return to the island just weeks after fleeing the country, as organisations around the world call for the former military man to be prosecuted for war crimes and genocide. 

Cabinet Spokesperson Bandula Gunawardena told journalists that Rajapaksa “will return to Sri Lanka soon” though did not provide an exact date. 

Tamil and human rights organizations from across the world, issued a joint letter urging Singapore’s Attorney-General's Chambers to investigate and prosecute Gotabaya Rajapaksa for his involvement in international crimes during the culmination of the Tamil Genocide in 2009. 

A US court sentenced Sri Lanka’s former ambassador to Washington to a US$5,000 fine and two years probation last week, in a case that may have reverberations in Colombo and capitals around the world.

Jaliya Chitran Wickramasuriya, Colombo’s former ambassador to the United States, has pled guilty to diverting and attempting to embezzle US$332,027 from the government of Sri Lanka, as it purchased a new embassy building in Washington in 2013.

China Premier, Xi Jinping, and Russian President, Vladimir Putin, were amongst the first world leaders to congratulate Ranil Wickremesinghe for his appointment as Sri Lanka’s President.

The statements follow tense exchanges with western diplomats critical of his brutal suppression of protesters, which saw the military attack demonstrators, injuring at least 50.

The Valikamam East Pradeshiya Sabha marked the 39th anniversary of Black July in which over 3,000 Tamils were slaughtered. 

The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) have filed a criminal complaint to Singapore's Attorney General, seeking the "immediate arrest" of Sri Lanka's former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa for committing war crimes during the armed conflict. 

Responding to growing criticism of the violent crackdown on protesters, Jaffna newspaper Kalaikkathir reports that, Sri Lanka’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe assembled a meeting of senior diplomats where he berated officials over their criticisms of his office.

“Would your governments allow such protesters to illegally occupy the office of the President in your country and refuse to leave?" the irate President asked the diplomats present.

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asian Director for Human Rights Watch (HRW) has reiterated calls for the accused war criminal to be investigated and prosecuted under the principle of universal jurisdiction. 

Writing in the Washington Post, Ganguly noted that after Gotabaya Rajapaksa had fled the island and resigned his position, he no longer has sovereign immunity from prosecution.