A 21 year old Tamil man has been admitted to Valaichchenai hospital after being abducted and attacked in Pesalai last week. Jeyakanthan Jeyaratnam from Maruthanagar, Kalkuda was at Pesalai fish market when a group of 7 people abducted him. He was later admitted to hospital due to his injuries. According to Eastern province based website Battinews.com the attack was believed to be a revenge attack that was politically motivated. News of the attack comes as the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pullikal (TMVP), a paramilitary group aligned to the previous government, claimed that several of its members...
The Sri Lankan government appointed a new Governor for the predominantly Tamil Northern Province on Monday, replacing former military general, G.A Chandrasiri. The newly appointed governor, H. M. G. S. Palihakkara, was a permanent Sri Lankan ambassador to the UN, during the final stages of the war against Tamil militants, where over 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed amidst Sri Lankan army operations against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The Northern Provincial governor, which is the only unelected position within the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), has the power to overrule...
The conclusion of Sri Lanka's presidential and appointment of Maithripala Sirisena as president of the country is not yet a cause for celebration, said journalist J.S. Tissainayagam, stating that the real challenges for Sri Lanka are only just beginning. Writing in Foreign Policy , the award winning journalist said that whilst Sirisena has pledged to implement constitutional reforms, this will do little to assuage Tamil and Muslim concerns. Tissainayagam says, “Neither presidential nor parliamentary forms of government — invariably dominated by the Sinhalese, who make up roughly 74 percent of the country’s 21 million people — is satisfactory to the Tamils and Muslims. Instead, they demand greater autonomy in the north and the east. But Sirisena’s election manifesto is completely silent on the matter.”
The Tamil issue must be resolved to see peace in Sri Lanka said, the Oscar and Grammy award nominated rapper, M.I.A, speaking to Channel 4 on the newly elected Sri Lankan president. Noting that issues important to the Tamils had not been considered in the new Sri Lankan president's 100 day plan to reform the country, M.I.A said, "When you take Rajapaksa out, you have to take his methods out. You have to demilitarise the North-East, stop intimidating Tamils, and give back their land. Already there should be elements in this 100 day plan which address the Tamil issue....You definitely have to solve the ethnic conflict before addressing economic reform."
The shock defeat of incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka’s presidential elections has given rise, both internationally and in the island, to cautious optimism of a new era of governance that would break from the violent authoritarianism and cronyism of the past decade. Building his campaign around a pledge to end corruption, uphold the rule of law, ensure press freedom and abolish the executive presidency, the unlikely victor, Maithiripala Sirisena, successfully drew the support of a disparate array of opposition parties, including the United National Party (UNP), General Sarath Fonseka's party, the JVP and the JHU, as well as the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress (SLMC). Ongoing cross-overs from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) have now given him the necessary parliamentary majority to make good on his pledges.
The newly elected president, Maithripala Sirisena, formally assumed his duties on Monday at the Presidential Secretariat.
Updated 1520 GMT The new president Maithripala Sirisena appointed his cabinet ministers on Monday, who took oath at the Presidential Secretariat. The full list of cabinet minisiters, state ministers and deputy ministers have been published below. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and JVP had already stated that they would not be accepting ministerial positions within the cabinet.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott called on the newly elected Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena for his continued cooperation in tackling asylum seekers fleeing the island, in a congratulatory phone call on Saturday. Abbott's office said that he had emphasised Australia and Sri Lanka’s “continuing cooperation” on people smuggling, as well as praising outgoing president Mahinda Rajapaksa's “positive role in supporting a peaceful transition of power.” In the run up to the election, Phil Lynch from the International Service for Human Rights had earlier criticised Australia's "misguided approach to 'stopping the boats', which actually involved close cooperation with alleged war criminals".
US Secretary of State John Kerry said that there are “still real challenges” in Sri Lanka and called on the newly led government to begin addressing issues such as human rights immediately. Speaking at a press conference at the Vibrant Gujarat summit in India yesterday, Kerry told reporters, “We offered very immediately to engage in a dialogue to begin to work at guaranteeing that the problems with respect to human rights, the problems with inclusivity, challenges with respect to governance, are going to be addressed.” “We will engage in that conversation from this moment forward, and hope that we can now forge a different outcome in Sri Lanka." Kerry said that he had talked to the newly elected Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, adding "we are very hopeful that, in the days ahead, we can make some progress on all fronts.”
Former army general Sarath Fonseka claimed responsibility for conducting Sri Lanka's military campaign during the armed conflict, stating he had “planned the entire operation” and rejected cooperating with an United Nations inquiry into mass atrocities. In an interview to the Times of India, Fonseka criticised former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa for claiming he would engage in peace talks in 2005, saying, “Every President wanted to finish the war. But in the 2005 election manifesto, Rajapaksa said he will have peace talks with Prabhakaran.” Fonseka went on to claim responsibility for the culmination of the armed conflict, which ended with the systematic shelling of civilian hospitals and execution of those who surrendered, saying, “When the army was chasing the LTTE, he didn't even know what was happening on the ground in 2007. He did not even allocate money for ammunitions. I was recruiting additional 85,000 army men. When I became commander I recruited 4,000 men in a month. Earlier only 3,000 people joined the army for a year.” “I planned the entire operation and I was communicating with all levels of army persons.”