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.

A Sinhala Buddhist monk has lodged a complaint at the Swiss Embassy in Colombo, claiming that rival extremist monks abducted and assaulted him as the clergy tussle over a seat in Sri Lanka’s parliament.

Monks from the Our Power of Peoples Party (OPPP) are currently engaged in a dispute over the sole National List seat that the party is entitled to in Sri Lanka’s parliament. 

Arambepola Ratanasara, a member of the OPPP claimed he was “kidnapped and held illegally” by Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, another monk who is the general secretary of the Sinhala supremacist Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) organisation.

A two-thirds majority in the Sri Lankan parliament does not mean the ruling Rajapaksa regime can ignore the concerns of the Tamil people, declared Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R Sampanthan. 

Sri Lanka has ordered the rationing of electricity throughout the week after power cuts plunged the island into darkness following yet another failure of the Norochcholai power plant.

Sri Lankan officials said a “technical fault” at the plant left the island without power for up to 10 hours. Traffic lights in the southern capital of Colombo failed, alongside water pumps in many areas, causing widespread disruption.

Planned power cuts have been scheduled for the week ahead as Sri Lanka attempted to restart the plant.