Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Sri Lanka Naval officers detained over Tamil politician murder

A National Anti-War Front protest in Colombo over the assassination of Tamil MP Nadarajah Raviraj, in November 2006. — File Photo: Sriyantha Walpola

COLOMBO, March 31, 2015

Three Sri Lankan Navy personnel, including two officers, have been detained by the police here under the anti-terrorism Act for the alleged murder of a popular Tamil lawmaker in 2006 that snowballed into a major human rights issue for the then government.

Nadarajah Raviraj, 44, was gunned down in his car along with his police guard as he left his residence here in November 2006.

Raviraj was a popular Tamil politician with an ability to communicate with the Sinhala majority and was a rising star in the main Tamil party, Tamil National Alliance.

A former mayor of Jaffna and a lawyer by profession, Raviraj openly spoke out against the conflict between the military and LTTE in the country’s north and east.

Police spokesman A.S.P. Ruwan Gunasekara said that the three Navy personnel are now being questioned over the 2006 murder.

“These three officers are being detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. They are being questioned over Raviraj’s killing, as well as killing the police officer who was present with the MP when he was shot. The detained suspects are also being questioned on the abductions and disappearances of several young men,” he said.

The murder which happened at the height of the government’s military crackdown on the LTTE had became a major human rights accountability issue for the earlier Mahinda Rajapaksa administration.

Sri Lanka under former President Rajapaksa was subject to three consecutive UN Human Rights Council resolutions, the last of which mandated an international inquiry on alleged rights abuses committed by both government troops and the LTTE.

The Rajapaksa government had resisted the investigation dubbing it as a violation of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty.

The incumbent administration of President Maithripala Sirisena is also opposed to an international investigation but has agreed to a credible domestic probe with international technical assistance.

Proof of secret camps Prime Minister Wickremesinghe denies exist

31 MARCH 2015
Despite Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's public denial, credible reports have emerged to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that the Sri Lankan military still operates secret camps in the north, where surrendered ex-Tamil Tiger rebels and those who were made to disappear during and after the war, have been held and tortured to-date.

Relatives and families of four such people who are currently held in these secret camps in the Wanni for a prolonged period have reported this matter to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and sought its help to get their loved ones released.

The reports of the operation of secret camps have come at a time when Prime Minister Wickremesinghe during his three-day official visit to the North late last week publicly denied claims made by Jaffna District Parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Suresh Premachandran in this regard.

"After we took over the government, there are no secret camps. I cannot speak for the time before that," Mr Wickremesinghe said in Jaffna on Friday (March 27).

Keppapulavu secret camp

Balananthini Viswanathan has filed a writ application in the Mullaitivu district court demanding the court to help releasing her husband Chelliah Visvanathan who had surrendered to the army during the final days of the war in May 2009 and gone disappeared since then.

She claims that her husband has been held in an army camp in Keppapulavu, a fertile village in the Mullaitivu district. After the war, the military has taken over this village denying access to about 350 native families displaced by the war.

Her writ application is set to be taken up tomorrow in the court.

About 50 held in Keppapulavu secret camp

Another ex-LTTE cadre, who had also surrendered to the army in May 2009 has contacted one of his relatives from this Keppapulavu secret camp and informed that about 50 people were being held in the camp.

The JDS withholds the details of this person and that of his relatives for safety reasons.

Meanwhile, a mother whose son was made to disappear in 2011 said that her son Ravindran Mayuran has been brought to the Mancholai hospital in Mullaitivu late last month for a urinary treatment.

According his mother Rosemalar, some family relatives have met Mayuran and spoken to him at the hospital on February 27 around 10 am, thinking that he has been released from the military custody. But when she went to the hospital on the following morning to visit her son, she was told by the doctors that no one in that name has been treated or admitted to the hospital.

The JDS reliably learns that the military personnel who brought 27-year old Mayuran to the hospital have warned the hospital administration not to maintain any record with regard to his admission or treatment at the hospital.

Mullaitivu secret camp

According to Rosemalar, Mayuran has told the relatives during the brief meeting that he has been held and tortured in an army camp in Mullaitivu. He has also said that he has been badly affected and often falling ill due to excessive torture.

Mayuran, a father of one, from 8th Division Manthuvil in Mullaitivu was first taken away from Arunasalam Welfare Centre in Chettikulam Manik Farm area in May 2009 by the military for interrogation. He was held and interrogated in Nelukkulam, Vavuniya Chinna Mankulam and Welikanda military detention camps.

He was released on 16 November, 2010 at a function at Vavuniya Tamil Maha Vidyalayam and was living with his wife and child at Kadirgamar Welfare centre. He used to go out and do some odd jobs to look after his family.

On 2nd February, 2011 he was made to disappear again while returning from work. The family has informed the ICRC and was waiting to know his whereabouts. It is under this circumstance that he has been met by some relatives and neighbours on February 27 while waiting for a urinary treatment at the Mancholai hospital. He had to end his conversation with them abruptly after noticing that he was being closely monitored by those who brought him to the hospital.

Jegatheepan Devaraja who was made to disappear in April 2009 has been seen by her cousin sister travelling in a military truck. The 27 year old boy from Mullaitivu was seen wearing a dress similar to the army. This has now been informed to the ICRC.

The native of Keppapulavu has been forcibly resettled in a jungle area east of Keppapulavu in September 2012. The 59 Division of the army has set up a massive camp in Keppapulavu, which includes a government school.

MP Suresh Premachandran has demanded the new government in parliament and outside to conduct a thorough investigation into the credible reports of secret camps.

The Ideal V. Practical In Electoral Reforms

By Sujata Gamage -March 31, 2015

Dr. Sujata Gamage

Electoral reform logjam broke loose when MPs agreed to an increase to the size of the parliament from 225 to 250. The idealists are up in arms. What is the ideal size of the parliament? What is the ideal mix of representation? They are asking now. These are good questions, but, unfortunately that bus left long ago, as far back as 2007.

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reforms was constituted in 2003 and they issued their Interim report in 2007. Interestingly the final report was never published, but, I have posted a scanned copy on my personal Web site. If anybody bothers to read the document, it shows the committee grappling with difficult questions. For example, there is a dissenting opinion by the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and Ceylon Workers Congress where they challenge the report extensively but offer constructive suggestions at the end.

In trying to meet multiple demands something has to yield. If it takes an increase to bring about changes, it is worthy increase I think. The number 250 need not be a done deal either. A delimitation commission can be given a charge to consider the other alternatives such as 235, 240 and 245. We can also ask the question what can be done with 250 do that cannot be done with 245 and so on. Those are little questions indeed.

We do need people who can look at the bigger picture. Do we want a soviet like government where for example, local councils would be smaller and closer to the communities and the chair and vice chair from each represent the communities in the provincial councils. The parliament would be small. It would leave local issues to local governments and provincial issues to provincial governments. Nice theory, but, has anybody thought of the political and policy tools through which we achieve such? If other countries achieved such significant changes how did they do it? How did we achieve big changes in the past? If anybody wants big changes , I suggest they use their time to do the research and prepare for the big policy moment which may strike.

We did have big policy moment in our country when we changed from a majoritarian FPP system of elections to a PR system in 1978. We are now getting ready to move into in a mixed system of the two, and it is a given, politically. It is not a bad move either. The world is moving from majoritarian systems or PR systems to mixes of the two.

Is this a time for anything bigger? I doubt it. We are more than three-quarters way through our policy window of 100 days. It is not a time for big policy thinking. Our focus would be indeed to do the little tweaks to changes that have been on the agenda for years. Two particular tweaks come to mind.

How much FPP and how much PR?

Those who talk about 50:50 solution do not ask a key question. What if 50 people from one party contest in 50 electorates in a FPP system and other 50 come from a PR of the votes cast, where are you going to find the people to fill those 50 PR seats? Which question leads us to our next tweak opportunity.

Who will fill the PR seats?

The obvious answer is a list submitted the by the party. That is indeed the norm in mixed methods or 100% PR systems. However, in Sri Lanka we have had disastrous results with elections to District Development Councils in 1982 where the lists were stuffed with friend and family. Have we grown up as a country since then? I doubt it. Awarding PR seats to the best runners-up as from FPP races in proportion to the votes garnered by them as proposed in in the 2007 report of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reforms is still the best alternative.

Innovations through tweaking

Innovations do not come not from arm-chair theorizing but trying to tweak within limitations. Tired of the debate over how much FPP or how much PR we asked ourselves why not use 100% PR, more or less, to decide how many seats each party is getting. Then use the FPP winners and the best runners-up to fill the seats. WE call this this system PSC-NZ combination because the first part comes from New Zealand and the second part from the PSC. More on the PSC-NZ method later.

Jayampathy on 19th A, electoral reforms and 100-day program

President’s Counsel Dr. Jayampathy Wickramaratne expressed the importance of abolishing the executive presidency and electoral reforms under two different constitutional amendments. Dr. Wickramaratne, who is involved in constitutional reforms, expressed his candid views about the 19th Amendment, electoral reforms and the 100-day program. He is also a member of the National Movement for Social Justice and a dissident of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP).
Following are excerpts:

March 31, 2015

Q: What are your remarks about the 19th Amendment?
A: The 19th Amendment that was gazetted has now been presented to Parliament. In the meantime the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the second set of changes to the 19th Amendment. They have shared it with leaders of other parties and it has also found its way to the newspapers. I am satisfied with the 19th Amendment read together with the changes proposed by the Cabinet.

Jayampathy on 19th a, Electoral Reforms and 100-Day Program by Thavam Ratna

Heritage & Nationalism: A Bane Of Sri Lanka

By Jude Fernando -March 30, 2015

Jude Fernando

“Those who control the past control the future. Those who control the present control the past” -George Orwell

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there”- L.P. Hartley.

The current practices of archeology and their complicity with rebranding of archaeological heritage as national heritage have contributed to the ethnic tensions, civil war, injustice, inequality, and violence in the Sri Lankan society. The pretense that archaeology is an apolitical profession is a form of complicity with these social ills. In many societies, archaeological knowledge was the historical basis for nation builders and their antagonists (e.g. separatists/sub nationalists), who reclaimed or plundered their antiquity, and reshaped it to support discriminatory social, economic and political practices. Sri Lanka is no exception.

Formerly a Tamil village known as Kokachankulam located in Vavunia North has been renamed as Nandimitragama

Nation building and archeology are intimately related. According to Randall McGuire “nationalists muster archaeology both to prove their myths dispassionately and to reveal and reconstruct an “authentic” objectified heritage.” In most societies archeology evolves and becomes institutionalized within the political and cultural parameters set by the nation-building priorities set by the state. Under these circumstances archeology is politics by other means. Denying the political nature of archeology is a form of self-deception.

Good governance (Yaha Palanaya), as a political response to pernicious social and political consequences of nation building, will elude us unless we are prepared to radically change the current mindset about the relationship between country’s archaeological heritage and culturally distinct collective identities and landscape. People’s entitlement for freedom, equality and justice should be the driving force behind the reasons for our search for archeological knowledge and how we chose to act upon it. Archeology fails to make a positive contribution to the society while it is a prisoner of the ethnonationalist politics of the state. Under such circumstances archeology becomes complicit with political and cultural practices that use archeology not “necessarily always to better understand the past, but to use the past to legitimize the present.” The point here is not that the past “literally speaks to the present,” but rather, “when the past is used to legitimize the present, we insist that it is saying what we want to hear, even if the thoughts we are imputing to the past may have been alien to it.”^[1]Read More

Sinhala Colonization In The North Sped Up

India’s Key to Sri Lanka: Maritime Infrastructure Development

To surpass China in Sri Lanka, India needs to pursue proactive and dynamic diplomacy.

By Nilanthi Samaranayake-March 31, 2015

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent trip to Sri Lanka highlights New Delhi’s reawakening to the strategic position that Sri Lanka holds in India’s neighborhood. Since 2008, India has watched as China built port facilities, highways, and other major infrastructure in Sri Lanka.
India’s Key to Sri Lanka Maritime Infrastructure Development by Thavam Ratna

War of words between Chinese firm and Sri Lanka escalates over Colombo Port City

Artist's impression of the proposed Colombo Port City project. Photo: SCMP pictures

Debasish Roy Chowdhury and Jing Yang-Tuesday, 31 March, 2015,

The war of words over the stalled Colombo Port City project escalated yesterday as China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) called the Sri Lankan government’s recent statement on the matter “factually incorrect”.

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake had told the South China Morning Poston Friday that CCCC had failed to furnish the necessary documents within the two-week deadline set for it by the government.

The new government in Colombo that came to power in January put Port City, a giant real estate reclamation project off the capital, on hold earlier this month alleging irregularities. The government, which maintains CCCC had not obtained the requisite clearance to start the project, gave it two weeks to show all necessary documents to prove otherwise.

“CCCC, upon being issued the temporary suspension of the project via a letter on March 6, 2015 by the Government of Sri Lanka, reiterates that it responded within two working days with all relevant approvals and permits afforded to the Project Company,” the company said in a statement to thePost yesterday.

“They run full-page advertisements in newspapers justifying their actions, but when we tell them to submit documents, they draw a blank,” Karunanayake had said in his interview.

The company reiterated that according to its agreement with the previous government, “the obligation to obtain the necessary permits and approvals for the project is with the Sri Lankan Government and not the Project Company”.

CCCC also maintained that the “agreement was authorised by Sri Lanka’s Attorney General and approved by the Cabinet of Sri Lanka”, contradicting the new government’s stand.

Colombo Port City has become a bone of contention between China and Sri Lanka. In his meeting with the new Sri Lankan President, Maithripala Sirisena, in Beijing last week, President Xi Jingping urged him to protect the legitimate interests of Chinese companies. Xinhua reported that Sirisena had said the current situation is “temporary and the problems do not lie with China”.

Colombo Port City is among the several Chinese-funded projects that have come under the scrutiny of the new government, which alleges large-scale corruption by the previous administration of pro-China Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was ousted in the presidential elections in January.

But unlike most projects by Chinese companies in the South Asian country, Colombo Port City is not bankrolled by Chinese loans. It is financed entirely by equity from CCCC or funds raised through it, with no commitment from the Sri Lankan government. Under the deal for the project, CCCC would reclaim 233 hectares of land. Of this, it would keep 108 hectares

Meanwhile, shrugging off the controversy over Chinese projects and companies operating in Sri Lanka, China Merchants Holdings (International) yesterday said it will make Sri Lanka one of its regional headquarters.

The subsidiary of state conglomerate China Merchants Group is the largest shareholder of Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT), its joint venture with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA).

The company has built the Colombo South Container Terminal in the capital under a 35 year build-operate-transfer agreement with the SLPA.

Sri Lanka is an important trade and shipping hub for the Indian subcontinent, and some of its staff there had been relocated to the firm’s other overseas offices “because of the excellent work they had done in building and operating this port”, managing director Hu Jianhua said. He added that CICT was the firm’s first overseas greenfield project and a testing ground for its global aspirations.

The terminal, opened in April last year, handled 0.68 million 20-foot standard containers as of the end of last year. The volume is projected to exceed 1 million this year.

CMHI reported its net profit for last year rose 14.7 per cent to HK$4.6 billion, beating analysts’ estimates.

CCCC’s net profit for last year also unexpectedly rose 11.3 per cent to 14 billion yuan.

In Memory Of My Father- Professor Sucharita Gamlath

By Sharmila Gamlath -March 31, 2015

Sharmila Gamlath

My father, late Professor Sucharita Gamlath was one of the most prolific scholars of his time. During his lifetime, he continuously demonstrated his acumen in a range of fields, fulfilling the roles of author, teacher, literary critic, linguist, and political activist contemporaneously. He certainly needs no introduction among the general public of Sri Lanka. Since his demise on the 30^th of March 2013, there have been many eloquent accounts of his contributions to the fields of Sinhala language and literature, literary criticism and political views. However, on the eve of his second death anniversary, I thought it would be apt to supply an insider’s account of his life to the large number of Sri Lankan whose lives he enriched with his work.

An obvious question that may emerge is why I did not write such a memoir as soon as he passed away or, at least, why I did not write one last year, in conjunction with his first death anniversary. In fact, several friends and family members did urge me to write an appreciation about him earlier. However, during a couple of previous attempts, I had tremendous difficulty dealing with the myriad of emotions that crossed my mind. Recently, when I spoke to a friend about this state of haziness I was experiencing, he reassured me that it is only human to feel that way. So I decided that was best to wait patiently till I was emotionally prepared to get down to this task. Now I am.

Sucharita Gamlath’s work ethic

Professor Sucharita Gamlath

It is worth pondering over what motivated my father to work so hard. I feel now that it was pure passion, the urge to keep utilizing his brilliance for as long as he could. The expected monetary payoff associated with his work was not a critical source of motivation for him. It makes me feel that scholars produce their greatest works when they engage in their activities with the sole intention of producing an outcome which challenges them, rather than treating a scholarly work like a pail of milk which can be sold and many things bought with the money. Engaging in scholarly work simply for extrinsic gains such as monetary rewards, career progress and recognition could sometimes negatively affect the quality of one’s work. The selfless gratification he got from engaging in his work was probably the magic formula for my father’s literacy success.

My father derived the greatest happiness from writing tirelessly. Usually, he organized his working day into three parts: he would generally get some writing -and perhaps reading- done before breakfast. After than he would sit at his writing table till lunch. After than he had a long nap, and after evening tea, he would go back to his writing and only stop at about 9.30pm.

(Lanka-e-News- 31.March.2015, 10.00PM) Under the newly elected government of good governance which is committed to dethroning rule of force and enthroning rule of law ,as well as demonstrating what is independence of judiciary and the paramount importance of upholding the rule of law, a politico , the prime suspect who was charged with violating election laws in a case that was filed several years ago was sentenced to jail today. The politico who was sentenced to two and half years in jail is Mahinda Abeykoon, the chairman of the central provincial council cum SLFP chief organizer Pahathahewaheta .

This verdict was delivered by Kandy high court judge Ms. Menaka Wijesundara on charges filed against the accused of forcibly entering a polling center at Pahathahewaheta and engaging in election violence during the general elections held on 5 th December 2001 – that is 14 years ago .

The case was filed against Mahinda Abeykoon on charges of unlawful assembly , criminal trespass ,use of force and engaging in disruptive activities under the election laws. Of the 14 suspects against whom this case was filed , two of them died while the case was on going in court . 11 other suspects were discharged on the previous date since there weren’t enough evidence against them .

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by (2015-03-31 17:34:00)

Police tear gas protesting university students

March 31, 2015

UPDATE: The Galle Road has been closed from Kollupitiya Junction to Galle Face Roundabout due to the protest launched by university students, polcie spokesman ASP Ruwan Gunasekara said.

Heavy traffic congestion was reported along Galle Road, Thunmulla and Bambalapitiya due to a protest march by the university students heading towards Colombo.

Police advised motorists to use alternative routes in order to avoid inconveniences.

The protest march, organized by the Inter University Students’ Federation (IUSF), commenced from the near the University of Sri Jayawardenapura based on several demands.

Police used tear gas to disperse the protestors who were obstructing traffic near the Kollupitiya Junction.

Sri Lanka confronts ex-leader’s extravagant projects in ‘middle of nowhere’

[Hundreds if not thousands of peacocks pose a serious threat to airline traffic at the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport]

31/03/2015

This remote coastal scrubland, a haven for wild elephants and migratory birds that is several hours away from the nearest city, seems like an odd place to attempt to create a major commercial hub..

Yet such was the whim of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, a local son who, thanks to Chinese loans, poured immense sums into pet projects during the decade he held this island nation in his grip.

Since he was voted out of office in January, Rajapaksa’s extravagant spending in his home district, much of it named for himself, looks ever more like monuments to folly.

A giant Indian Ocean harbor being blasted out of the island’s southern shoreline has seen costs soar well past $1 billion, and officials say it is unlikely to break even for years. A $210-million international airport built two years ago has hundreds of employees but receives just a handful of passengers a day.

Sri Lankan president admits election defeat; challenger sworn in

The 35,000-seat Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium and a new convention center are rarely used, as are miles of expansive new highways that see little traffic apart from the occasional herd of cattle.

“It’s a crying shame how much money was spent,” said Harsha de Silva, deputy minister for policy planning and economic affairs in Sri Lanka’s new government. “Why is an airport in the middle of nowhere? Why are you building a road to the middle of nowhere?”

It’s not as if Sri Lankans didn’t ask those questions before, but under Rajapaksa’s increasingly despotic administration, dissent was ignored or punished. After his narrow and surprising election defeat, the country of 20 million is waking up to the excesses of his rule with what appears to be a collective hangover.

SriLankan Airlines, the deeply indebted national carrier, announced that it would cease operating from Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in the town of Mattala, north of Hambantota. The twice-daily flights were losing the airline $8 million a year, company officials said.

New President Maithripala Sirisena has ordered a review of all of Rajapaksa’s projects – and it is a long list. To cement the government’s victory in a 26-year civil war against northern Tamil rebels, Rajapaksa embarked on a $6-billion spending binge on infrastructure projects starting in 2009.

More than two-thirds of the projects, including the port and airport at Hambantota, were financed by Chinese banks at interest rates as high as 6.3% annually, several times what other lenders offered, and did not go through open bidding processes, officials say. Authorities are investigating whether contracts were padded to benefit members of Rajapaksa’s government, which included more than two dozen members of his extended family. No charges have been filed.

“It’s a crying shame how much money was spent. Why is an airport in the middle of nowhere? Why are you building a road to the middle of nowhere?”
– Harsha de Silva, deputy minister for policy planning and economic affairs in Sri Lanka

In the meantime, finance officials are exploring ways to restructure the Chinese loans. Government lawyers are poring over contracts, trying to scale back some projects that haven’t yet begun, such as a 500-acre development on reclaimed land in the capital, Colombo, where the ex-president envisioned luxury high-rises and a Formula One racetrack.

To Rajapaksa, the projects were powerful symbols of Sri Lanka’s expansion from a small, war-ravaged economy to one of the fastest growing in South Asia.

He and members of his family did not respond to requests for comment. In an interview this month with the South China Morning Post, he defended his actions.

“I wanted development for Sri Lanka and China was the only one which had the resources and the inclination to help me,” Rajapaksa said.

Sri Lanka was so unfortunate for not to get the service of Mahinda Rajapakse for a another term being the leader of the country. Had he been there for another 5 years or 10 years, Sri Lanka would have been truly a miracle of South Asia with very high living standards and per capita income for…

Opponents counter that he built by fiat, bypassing environmental studies and economic assessments, and that China, seeking to boost its influence on the doorstep of rival India, took advantage of his haste.

“They were vanity projects for Rajapaksa, plain and simple, and China was quite happy to nurture his vanity,” said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives, a think tank in Colombo.

Business leaders in Hambantota said they were never consulted about the giant structures that began proliferating in their district like mushrooms after a monsoon.

A predominantly fishing and farming area that is still recovering from damage sustained in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Hambantota historically has been one of the poorer pockets of the country.

Airplane tickets and use of the convention center, as well as a five-star hotel planned for the port complex, are out of the financial reach of most residents, raising questions about their long-term viability.

Suspected war criminal Jagath Dias opens school in Vanni

*What is Good Governance?

War Crimes in Sri Lanka-genocide

31 March 2015

A new school building constructed at the Roman Catholic College in Puthukkudiyiruppu wasopened by suspected war criminal Major General Jagath Dias earlier this month.

Mr Dias, who is the commander of the Mullaithivu headquarters of the Sri Lankan army, was leading an army division during the armed conflict and is thought to be responsible for mass atrocities committed during the final phase.

The commander was last year refused entry into Australia over his role in the final stages of the armed conflict and allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Only two days before the opening of the school on March 4, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, that the Sri Lankan military had ceased its civilian activities.

"Just days after assuming office, the President replaced the former military governors of the Northern and Eastern provinces of the country with two senior former civil servants. This set in motion the process of strengthening civilian administration in these provinces including the cessation of military involvement in civilian activities, review of high-security zones and releasing land for resettlement of the internally displaced," Mr Samawaraweera had said.

The military's ongoing involvement in Tamil affairs almost 6 years after the end of the armed conflict has been widely condemned by Tamil politicians and activists, with numerous calls for the new president, Maithripala Sirisena to demilitarise the North-East.