Updated 0730 GMT Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa reportedly conceded defeat in the island’s general elections and stated he will be an opposition member of parliament. AFP reports Mr Rajapaksa as saying: "My dream of becoming prime minister has faded away… I am conceding. We have lost a good fight". However, just hours later, Mr Rajapaksa's official Twitter account refuted the comments, tweeting, "Mahinda Rajapaksa hasn’t yet received official final results of #GenElecSL to accept victory or concede defeat." Mahinda Rajapaksa hasn’t yet received official final results of #...
Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) revealed that the identity cards of abducted Tamil youth were found in the possession of a Sri Lankan navy officer. Investigating the abduction of six Tamil youth from Colombo, Police spokesperson ASP Ruwan Gunasekera said , “these abductions have taken place during the latter part of the war and they had been detained at Navy camps in Trincomalee and at Chaithya Road in Colombo”. “National identity cards of these abducted youths had been found in the possession of one Navy officer at the time of his arrest,” he added. No one has yet been charged with the abductions. The spokesperson went on to state that whilst two of the suspected navy officers had since retired, “it is also stated that some, who are still in service, are making efforts to safeguard the suspects”.
Tamils cast their vote in the North-East. (Photograph Tamilwin). Polls opened this morning local time for Sri Lanka's parliamentary election. Tamils awoke today to elect an expected maximum 18 MPs to seek constitutional change within a 225 seat Sinhala majority parliament where there has been a rejection of Tamil demands from across the spectrum of Sinhala majority political parties. The election has seen the return of the formerly defeated president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, to run on as the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP) candidate against the United National Party, which has formed a coalition together with smaller parties including the JHU - the United National Front (UNF). The ruling UNF majority Sinhala coalition as well as the UPFA Sinhala majority opposition have rejected Tamil demands for fully devolved federalism, acknowledgement of the Tamil right to self-determination, de-militarisation of the North-East and international justice mechanisms. Amid credible reports of ongoing torture in Sri Lanka, Tamils in the militarised North-East have been clear in reiterating their demands however, which stem from over six decades of seeking solutions within Sinhala majoritarianism in parliament. As campaigning has heated up over recent weeks, the Tamil parties have launched their campaigns precisely on these very issues that remain of the greatest significance to the Tamil electorate. The two main Tamil parties - the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF) have said they will seek constitutional change to fully devolve powers to the North-East through a federal solution and recognise Tamils as a nation on the island, as well as proceeding to seek an international process to deal with the findings of the upcoming UN investigation in to Sri Lanka’s mass atrocities.
The Sri Lankan government has sought the international assistance of the United States, Indian and the British Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in order to trace reports of financial abuse by the former government, announced the foreign minister. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, a politician who was previously close to the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, told The Telegraph : “We have asked for help from the authorities in Britain, the US, India and several other countries, as well as the stolen assets recovery unit at the World Bank, as we try to identify assets stashed abroad in offshore accounts, property and business investments”. “We need the help of foreign governments and agencies and we are very pleased with the assistance we have been receiving. We are on the verge of some major breakthroughs and we are preparing criminal cases right now.” His comments come, ahead of the Sri Lankan general elections on Monday, where the issue of accountability for massacres committed during the final stages of the island’s armed conflict continues to be a major issue for voters. Sri Lanka has so far refused to allow international investigators from the United Nations access to alleged sites of mass atrocities. Hugo Swire, the British Foreign Office Minister for Asia, said the UK was “leading a real drive on this across the world and are supporting a number of governments, including Sri Lanka’s, on tackling corruption”.
Sri Lanka's prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe suspended the probe investigating the abduction of cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda due to warnings from the military that the inquiry could cause a stir within the military, a local paper reported . Mr Wickremesinghe was informed by high-ranking military officials that several senior officers were involved in a unit set up for abductions and further inquiries could reveal the entire operation, and as such decided to suspend the probe until after the election. The army officials said around 650 officers were attached in this unit, which was formed by then-army commander Sarath Fonseka during the armed conflict. After 2009 the unit is said to have continued under Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and included current chief of staff of the army Jagath Jayasuriya. A sergeant major, currently in custody, earlier this month admitted to questioning the cartoonist, after years of denial of knowledge of his whereabouts by the military.
The public should refrain from any processions for at least 7 days after Sri Lanka's general election result is announced said the Sri Lankan police spokesperson, Ruwan Gunasekara. "Elections laws would be strictly implemented during the post-election period," Mr Gunasekara was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying. "Those who violated election laws would be arrested," he further added.
Special Task Force personnel and additional police officers have been deployed to Mannar, Vavuniya and Puttalam ahead of tomorrow's general election, reports the Sunday Times.lk . According to the paper, the Election Commissioner "ordered that if any attempt was made to disrupt the voting in a polling booth, the Police should use maximum force to control the situation". Security has also been stepped up in Kandy, Kalutara and Anuradhapura, with over 75000 extra personnel deployed in total. See here for more.
A supporter of a UNP candidate in Batticaloa, Ameer Ali, was shot dead on Saturday reports the Island . The victim, Jamaldeen Ammer was riding a motorcycle when he was shot dead by two assassins who tailed him and fled after opening fire.
The British Foreign Office Minister for Asia said there needs to be accountability in Sri Lanka and called for an independent credible investigations into violations of international humanitarian law. Hugo Swire told The Telegraph, “Whatever mechanism is employed should be independent, credible and in accordance with international standards". “There needs to be accountability in order for Sri Lanka to move on from this extraordinarily dark period,” he said. “Sri Lankans need to know the truth about what happened.” “A key will be to focus on those most responsible for most serious crimes,” said Ruki Fernando, who works with a human rights centre in Colombo. “Dropping the ball now, would be a great insult to survivors and victims families and human rights defenders, who have been abandoned and let down by the international community in the past, and who had yet taken great risks to share stories of suffering with the UN investigation team.” “Their right to truth, justice, reparations, guarantees of non occurrence and to be consulted must be ensured.” The Telegraph also spoke to Tamil disappearances activist Balendra Jeyakumary, who was detained by the Sri Lankan government last year. Ms Jeyakumary, a survivor from the final stages of the armed conflict in 2009, described the massacres she witnessed in Mullivaikkal.
The British Tamil Conservatives has sent a brief to the British Government, European Union, and the European and Commonwealth election monitoring teams to urge the Election Commissioner of Sri Lanka to mitigate potential opportunities to manipulate the preferential vote count process in the upcoming parliamentary elections. A spokesperson at the BTC told Tamil Guardian that “credible sources on the ground had said that there was vote manipulation in the preferential vote count stage of the previous parliamentary elections. Given how crucial this election is in voting genuine representatives for all people in Sri Lanka, we want to ensure their democratic choice is respected.” See press brief below.