Hannah Ellis-Petersen: Gotabaya Rajapaksa elected president of Sri Lanka

By Dilip -

The election of Rajapaksa could be a decisive moment for Sri Lanka. Referred to as “the terminator” by his own family, Rajapaksa is known for his nationalistic and authoritarian leanings and is still facing allegations of corruption and torture. “It is all our worst fears realised,” said Hilmy Ahmed, the vice-president of the Sri Lanka Muslim Council. “Sri Lanka is totally polarised by this result and we can see through the votes there is now a clear divide between the Sinhala Buddhist majority and the minorities. It is a huge challenge to see how the country could be united.”

The election took place seven months after the Easter Sunday attacks, in which saw self-radicalised Islamist extremists bombed hotels and churches, killing more than 250 people. Rajapaksa, a former army colonel who served as secretary of defence when his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was president between 2005 and 2010, played on fears stoked by the attacks and put security at the forefront of his campaign agenda.

He and Mahinda Rajapaksa are credited with ending the 26-year Sri Lankan civil war, which took more than 100,000 lives, but their legacy is tarnished by grave human rights abuses and oppression.
As de facto head of the army during the end of the civil war between the majority Sinhala-Buddhist government and minority Tamil separatists, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been accused of creating military death squads who hunted down Tamil fighters and any critics of the government.

He has already said he would repeal Sri Lanka’s commitment to a UN human rights agenda for reconciliation and accountability for atrocities committed in the civil war, describing it as illegal...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/17/sri-lanka-presidential-candidate-rajapaksa-premadas-count-continues

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