Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister resigns to run as presidential candidate

by admin
Jul 29, 2024

Ahead of Sri Lanka’s election, on 21st September, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, has resigned from his post as Sri Lanka’s Justice Minister in order to run for the presidency. 

The controversial former justice minister has previously has previously advocated for the rape of lesbians to “cure” them and had lashed out against the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter terrorism, Ben Emmerson.

"He can't dictate like this, we can't make laws immediately. They have to go through parliament” Rajapakshe told Reuters. This was in response to a Emmerson’s damning assessment of human rihs on the island and the failure to repeal Sri Lanka’s draconian Prevention against Terrorism Act (PTA). Emmerson further noted:

"The Government has thus far done almost nothing to hold to account those members of the armed forces and security services who committed gross human rights violations during and since the conflict."

To replace the PTA, Rajapakshe has pushed for the Anti-Terrorism Act which the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) has heavily criticised. The OHCHR has stated that the proposed legislation “includes an overly broad definition of terrorism and grants wide powers to the police - and to the military - to stop, question and search, and to arrest and detain people, with inadequate judicial oversight”.

The former justice minister has previously lashed out against the Tamil diaspora for the successful passage of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution 51/L1. Instead, he has pushed for yet another domestic mechanism, known as the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation.

Tamils have consistently rejected these domestic mechanisms as they have not produced tangible results. In October 2022, Tamil families of the disappeared launched a protest in Jaffna against a visit by the Justice Minister emphasising their rejection of the Office of Missing Persons which has failed to produce any tangible results since the office was established in 2017.

 

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Amaran - Problematic propaganda

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The genre of war epic makes its grand re-entry to Tamil cinema with director Rajkumar Periasamy’s sophomore feature film, ‘Amaran.’ As is often the case with this genre, one cannot help but feel the events of the ‘true story’ onscreen have been heavily modified for easy consumption.

 

 

 

The patriotic military films of Tamil cinema had taken a back seat for a while. The subject matter is now seldom a prominent theme of a film, instead lurking in the shadows peeking through such as via the heroes in the works of Nelson Dilipkumar. The genre of war epic makes its grand re-entry to Tamil cinema with director Rajkumar Periasamy’s sophomore feature film, ‘Amaran.’ As is often the case with this genre, one cannot help but feel the events of the ‘true story’ onscreen have been heavily modified for easy consumption.

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Krishna's rating: 2.5 stars

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Official trailer for film below.

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un_spcial

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