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