The US Ambassador to Sri Lanka called on the new president and accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa this week, where they discussed  “a US partnership [with] a sovereign, secure, and prosperous Sri Lanka”.

The director of Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was demoted on Thursday.

As director Shani Abeysekera oversaw cases involving military personnel including the abduction and disappearance of 11 youths by the Sri Lankan navy.

Other high profile cases included the ongoing murder trial of prominent Sri Lankan editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, and more recently the framing of a Muslim doctor falsely accused of sterilising Sinhala women.

Tamils across the North-East have stated that remembrance activities for Maaveerar Naal on November 27 will go ahead despite increased fears after the election of accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa as president last week.

India stated that its external affairs minister called on Sri Lanka’s new president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to “reconciliation to arrive at a solution that meets the aspirations of the Tamil community for equality, justice, peace and dignity,” after the two met in Colombo earlier this week.

While there has been jubilation in much of the Sinhala south, Tamils and Muslims across the North-East fear that the return of a Rajapaksa regime means further rights abuses, wrote Thusiyan Nandakumar, Tamil Guardian’s editor-in-chief in The National this week.

“For communities such as Tamils and Muslims, there is now an overwhelming sense of fear and trepidation,” said Nandakumar.

The Tamil road names of a street in Colombo have been removed from signs, tweeted a former Sri Lankan minister, as yet anti-Tamil language incident erupted on the island.

Sri Lankan police attempted to shut down a local authority-led clear-up of a public ground in Jaffna and intimidated Tamils taking part by videoing individuals and their vehicles.

The brutal oppression in Sri Lanka “should be recognised as an attempt at genocide against the Tamils,” says UK Labour Party’s Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, in a video statement earlier today.

Former Sri Lankan President and chairperson of the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR), Chandrika Kumaratunga, has resigned from her position as chairperson of the ONUR.

Westminster Magistrates Court has postponed the final verdict of Brigadier Priyanka Fernando case to December 6th. 

Newly appointed Defence Secretary, Kamal Gunaratne, has threated legal action against individuals who threaten 'national peace'.

In his statement, he maintained that fear of political vengeance, abductions and violence were 'irrational' and 'unnecessary'. These fear are driven by the appointment of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as President of Sri Lanka.