The leader of the Thamizh Makkal Thesiya Kootani (TMTK) and former Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C. V. Wigneswaran urged the Sri Lankan government to “shed the false historical perspectives of the past” and insisted that the rights of the people in the North-East needs to be recognised as they “are entitled to the right of self-determination”.

Wigneswaran also stated that “we have a very powerful government now” and that there was “a similar government during the regime… [of] the 1983 Pogrom,” during his first parliamentary speech last week.

People for Equality and Relief in Sri Lanka (PEARL) expressed “grave concerns” about the results of the Sri Lanka’s parliamentary election in fortifying Sri Lanka Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa and Sri Lanka President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s “increasingly autocratic and ethnocratic regime”.

In a statement released earlier this month, PEARL raised fears of how the Rajapaksa-led Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party successfully securing a two-thirds majority victory with an “openly Sinhala-Buddhist ethnonationalist platform” will be allowed to make constitutional changes to the 19^th Amendment.

Sri Lanka’s newly appointed cabinet ministers are to appoint a five-member committee to effectively repeal the 19^th amendment, which limits the powers of the presidency, and replace it with a proposed 20^th amendment.

According to co-cabinet spokesman, Keheliya Rambukwella, despite the amendments, some of its “salient features” will be retained. This includes the two five-year term limit imposed on the president. The cabinet also claimed that the Right to Information (RTI) Act will also be protected.

In the recent Sri Lankan Parliamentary election “Rajapaksa appealed to Sinhalese chauvinism, boasting of his role in crushing the Tamil Independence movement” Chris Slee wrote for the Green Left.

“The majority of Sri Lankans are Sinhalese Buddhists. The Rajapaksa brothers have appealed to Sinhalese-Buddhist chauvinism, directing hostility against ethnic and religious minorities. In recent years Muslims have been a target. Last year a number of terrorist attacks by a small Muslim group linked to ISIS provided a pretext for increased hostility toward Muslims.” Lee writes.

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has received complaints claiming that Sri Lankan police and Special Task Force (STF) officers assaulted people outside the Jaffna Central College, while parliamentary election votes were being recounted on Friday 7^th August.

The Jaffna coordinator of HRCSL stated that two complaints were registered against STF officials and one complaint was received against the Sri Lankan police.

The US Ambassador to Sri Lanka met with newly elected Sri Lankan prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa this week, where the two discussed Washington’s “continued commitment & assistance to Sri Lanka”.

During the meeting with Rajapaksa, who is accused of overseeing the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils, US Ambassador Alaina Teplitz stated they discussed “how our partnership can advance economic growth, reconciliation & good governance to support a strong, sovereign” Sri Lanka.

Former Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena has been summoned to make a statement to a Commission of Inquiry on August 26th regarding the Easter Sunday attacks, as reports suggest that Sri Lankan recieved as many as 97 warnings that the bombing was due to take palace.

Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan has been authorised to attend the inaugural parliamentary session on Thursday 20^th August as well as future sessions affirmed the Batticaloa High Court today, despite him currently being held in custody over the 2005 Christmas Day murder of Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Joseph Pararajasingham.

The announcement was made in response to an appeal by Sivanesathurai’s lawyers seeking authorisation to attend the sessions.