Northern Provincial Councillor and civil society activist Ananthy Sasitharan, has called the suggestion that she should be ‘rehabilitated’ an atrocious threat, made to silence voices like herself in the run-up to the UN Human Rights Council session in March.

Responding in a press release to the threat by a defence ministry official and to accusations that she was propagating ‘separatism’, Sasitharan accused the Sri Lankan government of encouraging Sinhalese supremacists and identifying extremists in the south as “patriots” while demonising human rights activists as separatists.

Sri Lanka has called on the US to reconsider its stance on human rights issues in Sri Lanka and urged it to support the government’s reconciliation efforts.

Justice minister Rauff Hakeem said the US and the international community should look at alternative mechanisms, like a truth commission, in order to see reconciliation on the island, instead of further aggravating divisions by digging for evidence to back war crimes charges, reported Xinhua.

Examining the aftermath of Bangladesh’s elections, marred by violence and a boycott by the opposition, other countries in Asia have also been failing democracies, wrote Victor Mallet in the Financial Times this week.

Citing the cases of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand and Sri Lanka, Mallet said,

“From Sri Lanka to Cambodia by way of Thailand, parliamentary democracies have fallen prey to the diseases of authoritarianism, violence and strident populism”.

The Sri Lankan government has urged the United States to reconsider its position on Sri Lanka, reports Colombo Gazette.

Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem reportedly asserted that the international community, including the US, should look to supporting mechanisms like the Truth Commission instead of 'polarising' the country.

The Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence has said it is seriously considering admitting Ananthy Sasitharan, a prominent and popular member of the Northern Provincial Council, to a rehabilitation centre, to prevent her from propagating separatist ideas, reported The Island.