Photographs Ranil Wickremesinghe's Facebook page Ranil Wickremesinghe, the leader of the United National Party (UNP) was sworn in on Friday as Sri Lanka's prime minister, following the party's election victory this week. This would be the fourth time Mr Wickremesinghe has served that position. He was previously appointed in 1993, following the assassination of the former president Ranasinghe Premadasa, then in 2001 when the the UNP led coalition won the parliamentary elections, and finally in January this year, when President Sirisena appointed Mr Wickremesinghe as prime minister.
The United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Friday outlining their commitment to a unity government in Sri Lanka till the next election. Following the swearing in ceremony of Ranil Wickremesinghe as Sri Lanka's prime minister, the UNP general secretary Kabir Hashim and the SLFP's acting general secretary Duminda Dissanayake signed the MoU, which was written entirely in Sinhala. Find it here .
Australia's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, on Friday, congratulated the United National Party leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe on being elected as Sri Lanka's prime minister at Monday's general election. “Australia has a close and long-standing bilateral relationship with Sri Lanka. We are working closely with Sri Lanka to grow trade and investment and increase cooperation on security and transnational crime, particularly countering people smuggling,” she said in a statement . "We will continue to support Sri Lanka as it makes progress on national reconciliation," she further added.
It is up to the Tamil public, civil society and diaspora to ensure that the Tamil National Alliance remains true to the mandate given by the voters, said exiled Tamil journalist J.S. Tissainayagam on Friday. Writing in the Asian Correspondent Mr Tissainayagam noted Tamil discontent at ambiguous aspects of the Tamil National Alliance’s manifesto, and called on, “Tamil voters, Tamil civil society – especially organisations such as the Tamil Civil Society Forum – and the Tamil diaspora to keep the TNA accountable and not deviate from its policy statements declared before elections.”
The SLFP's Jaffna organiser Angayan Ramanathan was selected as a national list member of parliament by the UPFA, after failing to be elected in the district. Mr Ramanathan is suspected to have been behind attacks and abductions as he carried out the Rajapaksa brothers' bidding while the SLFP was in power before January this year. Mahinda Rajapaksa's former human rights advisor Mahinda Samarasinghe was also selected as a national list MP after failing to get elected. Mr Samarasinghe was the government's representative at key UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva in previous years.
A Tamil woman on her way out of Sri Lanka was arrested at Colombo airport on Thursday, the fifth Tamil to be arrested at the country's main airport this week. Jayanthini Siluvairasa (23) from Jaffna, was detained by the CID who said she was attempting to reach Italy via Abu Dhabi, JDS reported on Friday. Ms Siluvairasa was brought before Negombo magistrate court , charged with carrying a forged passport and was remanded until 25th August.
The chairman of the Jathika Hela Urumaya, a hard line Sinhala nationalist party, has been selected by the UNP to become a member of parliament on its national list. Athuraliye Ratana, a Buddhist monk, will represent the United Front for Good Governance and was selected alongside Karu Jayasuriya, UNP chair Malik Samarawickrama, D. M. Swaminathan and Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne to be on the national list of the party. Mr Ratana rejects any investigation into the mass atrocities which occurred during the armed conflict and in 2013 strongly opposed then-UN human rights chief Navaneetham Pillai's...
Sri Lanka has ranked 122nd out of 152 countries in the Human Freedom Index compiled by the Fraser Institute, which was released earlier this week. The Human Freedom Index, which uses 76 indicators of personal, civil and economic freedoms, such as Association, Assembly, and Civil Society, Rule of Law, Security and Safety, Expression to rank countries from around the world. Using data collected from 2008-2012, Sri Lanka ranked 128th on personal freedom and 98th on economic freedom. See the full text of the report here .
The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the newly appointed Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe to ensure there was “long-term peace” on the island, in a phone call on Friday. Congratulating Mr Wickremesinghe on his election victory, the secretary-general “commended his message of good governance” and said the Sri Lankan government must “seize this opportunity to advance long-term peace for all Sri Lankans”. “The Secretary-General reiterated the United Nations commitment and support to the Sri Lankan people, the President, the Prime Minister and the new Government,” read a statement released by the UN.
The French government called on Sri Lanka to “promote human rights and reconciliation between communities” in the wake of this week’s parliamentary elections. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development Spokesperson in a statement, that it “stands alongside the Sri Lankan authorities and people in this process and intends to work with the new government toward strengthening our bilateral relations". See the full statement here .