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Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been reinstated by President Maithripala Sirisena, the man who sacked him two months ago and plunged the island nation into chaos.

Sirisena administered the oath that restored Wickremesinghe to office on Sunday.

"We thank the citizens of the country who fought the illegal seizure of power and ensured that Democracy was restored," Wickremesinghe's United National Party wrote in a post on Twitter shortly after he was sworn in.

In late October Sirisena dismissed the cabinet and replaced Wickremesinghe with former strongman President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who led the campaign to crush Tamil Tiger guerrillas in 2009. Rajapaksa stepped down from the post on Saturday.

The country's Supreme Court had ruled on Thursday that Sirisena's firing of the Prime Minister violated the constitution.

At the time of the sacking, Sirisena said he made the decision due to "political problems (and) economic troubles" which he believed only Rajapaksa could solve.

The decision created a constitutional crisis, with Wickremesinghe insisting he was still Prime Minister, leading to mass protests in the capital Colombo.

Sri Lanka's institutions had fought back in the wake of the President's decision, with Parliament passing a no-confidence motion in Rajapaksa in November and declaring his appointment "void and invalid."

Sirisena had attempted to dissolve Parliament to avoid the vote but the Supreme Court overturned that decision as well.The chaos has damaged Sri Lanka's economic standing, with Fitch Ratings downgrading it from 'B+' to 'B' in December due to the political upheaval.

It is reported that three parliamentarians, who crossed over from the United National Party to support the conspiratorial government, are having discussions to return to the UNP.

According to political sources, parliamentarians Wijeydasa Rajapaksha, S.B. Navinna and Dunesh Gankanda have had discussions over the phone with a leader from the United National Front (UNF). It is also learnt that Wijeydasa Rajapaksha had agreed to forgo a ministerial portfolio if he is appointed as the UNF organizer for either Maharagama or Homagama electorates.

The UNF parliamentarian who is facilitating the discussions with the three MPs is trying to persuade UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to accommodate them by stating that the UNF needs to strengthen its number of legislators in the House, sources said.

Certain parliamentarians representing the Sri Lanka Freedom Party have decided to form an internal faction within the party, informed political sources said.

Accordingly, SLFP MPs Mahinda Amaraweera, Duminda Dissanayake, Vijith Vijithamuni Soyza, Lasantha Alagiyawanna, Weerakumara Dissanayake, Faizer Mustapha, Dushmantha Mithrapala, Indika Bandaranayake, Lakshman Seneviratne, Kader Masthan, Sriyani Wijewickrema and a few others have grouped themselves together to form an alliance known as “Friends of January 08”.

Sources added that they will stand by the contours of the January 8 revolution and as such, will work towards protecting the promises made by the good governance regime prior to being elected in 2015.

The group have so far rejected offers to join Basil Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), sources added.
It is further reported that they have named SLFP MP Duminda Dissanayake as the convener of this faction.

They also said that a meeting of this faction was held at the residence of parliamentarian Mahinda Amaraweera yesterday (15), and had decided to function within the party while abiding by the policies and objectives of the SLFP.

However, it has not yet been decided whether this faction would join the new government that would be formed after the swearing-in ceremony of UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, today (16).

Political sources say that a group of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) parliamentarians are planning to join the United National Party (UNP) in the future.

SLFP MPs are to be allocated several Cabinet portfolios in the new government after UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe is sworn in as Prime Minister on Sunday, sources added.

However, since this will be United National Front led government, the number of Cabinet portfolios will be limited to 30 and the number of State and Deputy Minister portfolios will be limited to 45.

Presidential Secretariat sources claim MP Mahinda Rajapaksa was asked to resign by President Maithripala Sirisena and did not leave on his own accord as being claimed. 

According to the source despite several claims of being able to secure a majority in parliament by the MR faction they were unable to do so and therefore President Sirisena asked him to vacate the post to prevent a further unstable situation and so that a new PM could be appointed.

The source also refuted MP Lakshman Yapa Abeywardhena’s claim that Rajapaksa resigned as Sirisena was not able to appoint a new PM while he remains in the position. “This does not allow the honour of creating stability in the country be accorded to the President,” the source said.

Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was appointed as Sri Lanka's Prime Minister by President Maithripala Sirisena in a controversial move, resigned today (15) as two crucial Supreme Court decisions made the embattled former strongman's efforts to cling to premiership untenable.

Rajapaksa was appointed as the prime minister on October 26 by President Sirisena in a controversial move after sacking Ranil Wickremesinghe, which plunged the country into an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

The Supreme Court on December 14 refused to stay a court order restraining Rajapaksa, 73, from holding the office of Prime Minister until it fully heard the case next month.

The apex court on December 13 unanimously declared that the dissolution of Parliament by Sirisena was "illegal".

Pro-Rajapaksa lawmaker, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, had told reporters that Rajapaksa decided in a meeting on December 14 with President Sirisena to resign to allow the President to appoint a new government.

Wickremesinghe is expected to take oath as Sri Lanka's Prime Minister on December 16.

President Maithripala Sirisena has reportedly agreed to reinstate ousted Prime Minister Wickremesinghe in the post after a discussion with him over the phone on December 14.

The Government Medical Officers Association which maintained a stoic silence during the political coup in Sri Lanka as now once again threatened to launch a series of strike actions of Former Minister of Health Dr. Rajitha Senaratne is once against appointed to his previous position. 

According to the GMOA, the decision will lead to a crisis situation in the health sector. The comments were made by Secretary of the GMOA Dr Nalinda Herath at a press conference held this week. He claimed the health sector suffered major setbacks at the hands of Senaratne. The group and the former Minister were at constant loggerheads during his tenure leading to the GMOA to conduct strikes thereby adversely affecting a general public on several occasions.

Parliamentarian Mahinda Rajapaksa will resign from the post of premiership after an address to the nation, son of former strongman president Namal Rajapaksa MP tweeted a short while ago.

Namal also said that they will look to form a broader alliance with the SLFP and president Maithripala Sirisena.

United National Party (UNP) has invited all to the Galle Face Green to commemorate the struggle for justice, on Monday (Dec 17).

At a press conference held today (15), General Secretary of UNP, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, stated that they invite all public to join the celebrations disregarding party differences.

According to Kariyawasam, National organizations including the United National Front (UNF) and trade unions will be joining the rally.

The Supreme Court granted leave to proceed in the case involving former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s appeal against the interim order issued by the Court of Appeal which barred Rajapaksa from functioning as Prime Minister. 

On December 3, the Court of Appeal issued an interim order restraining Rajapaksa and his purported Cabinet from functioning until the hearing of the Writ of Quo Warranto filed against them is concluded. 

Rajapaksa and his Cabinet will continue to be restrained from acting in their respective offices until the case is full heard.

The case was heard before a three-judge Supreme Court bench comprising justices Eva Wanasundera, Buwaneka Aluvihare and Vijith Malalgoda today.

United National Party (UNP) Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe will be sworn in as the Prime Minister at the Presidential Secretariat at 10.30 am tomorrow (16), UNP General Secretary Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said.

He also said that the new Cabinet of Ministers will be sworn in on either Monday or Tuesday adding that the position of the Leader of the Opposition will be resolved when Parliament is convened.

Excavators in Sri Lanka have found the skeletal remains of 21 children as well as signs of possible torture of the dead in the biggest mass grave in  the country’s former civil war zone, Mannar, putting a spotlight on the island’s recent record of human rights violations.

So far 276 skeletons have been exhumed, with forensic archaeologist Professor Raj Somadeva saying the number already makes it the “largest mass grave ever explored on the island”.

“We have excavated only 70 per cent of the gravesite, so the body count is bound to be much higher,” Professor Somadeva told The Independent.

Metal objects that appear to bind together the legs of the dead have raised new questions about what happened to the victims in the mass grave.

Who they were – and who killed them – remains uncertain. However experts agree the presence of children shows this was “certainly a [whole] community of people”. 


The excavation, which started in May when a construction worker stumbled upon a human bone, is still in its early stages according to the chief investigation officer of the Mannar mass grave, Dr Saminda Rajapakse.“We still don’t know the exact period of these deaths,” he said.

“We have no idea who the victims are, their names or whether they were Tamil civilians, rebels or Sinhalese soldiers. Nothing.”

Although pottery, porcelain, metal objects and some jewellery worn by the victims have been found at the gravesite, there are no signs of clothes.

While it is too early to hold responsible either the Sri Lankan military or the Tamil Tiger rebels, who fought a bloody civil war from 1983 to 2009, human rights activists and the families of missing people are already demanding justice.

P Nagamma, a 67-year-old Tamil woman, said she believed her 18-year-old son lies buried in the Mannar mass grave. She told The Independent he was arrested by the Sri Lankan military on suspicion of being a terrorist in the early Nineties.

He had just gone out to meet a friend and eyewitnesses told me that some unknown men took him away near the site where they found the grave,” Ms Nagamma said tearfully. “I have been waiting for him for 27 years, somehow hoping he’ll be alive somewhere. But now I think he’s lying in that grave.”

Nagamma was not alone in that belief. Sandrapradasham Niranchan, a lawyer fighting for the families of the disappeared, has filed affidavits on behalf of nine families stating their husbands or sons were taken into custody by the army, navy or unknown groups in Mannar and were among the victims in the mass grave.

“Torturing and killing civilians is a blatant human rights crime. There are children in that mass grave. And we are certain there are more of these gravesites around the country where the disappeared Tamils have been buried,” he said.   

The mass grave in Mannar, a Tamil-majority area, was the scene of a number of battles during the war, in which more than 100,000 people died and at least 20,000 – mostly Tamils – remain missing. 

Rights groups allege both the military and the Tamil Tigers are to blame for civilian deaths and disappearances. However, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, who faces international war crimes charges and was instrumental in ending the long drawn-out conflict, has maintained the Sri Lankan military caused not a single civilian casualty.

A spokesperson for the Sri Lankan military claimed it was not responsible for the grave. “The army is not involved in that gravesite. We had nothing to do with it,” brigadier Sumith Atapattu said.

The Tamil Tigers themselves committed many atrocities, ruthlessly executing soldiers, Tamil civilians who did not support them and sometimes their own guerrilla members. The terrorist group, which had sophisticated air, sea and land units is also accused of using civilians as human shields throughout the conflict.

“It is extremely possible that the LTTE (Tamil Tigers) could be responsible for the people in that grave,” Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, an ethnic Tamil human rights activist, told The Independent.

“But whosoever committed these atrocities has to be held responsible, because this is not just a war crime, but a crime against humanity,” he said. (The Independent)