Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was sworn in on 18 November at a Buddhist temple in the north of the country. Aged 70, the brother of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa (2005-2015) was elected on November 16 in a poll that saw Sri Lankan voters divided as seldom, along ethnic and religious lines.
The new head of state has garnered votes from the Sinhalese majority on the island, where the Rajapaksa have enjoyed great popularity for ending in 2009 four decades of civil war with the Tamil separatist rebellion. The Tamil and Muslim minorities overwhelmingly supported its main opponent, Sajith Premadasa, who came in second with almost 42% of the ballots.
Nicknamed "Terminator", Gotabaya Rajapaksa, campaigned on his image as a strongman. He played the security card following the jihadist Easter attacks that killed 269 people. Kamikazes of a local extremist group blew themselves up in luxury hotels and Christian churches in high mass. "Protecting national security is the main responsibility of my government," said the head of state during his speech Monday morning.
Strategist of the military crash of the Tamils
At the swearing-in ceremony, Gotabaya Rajapaksa called on the communities who did not vote for him to "[...] join to build a united Sri Lanka". "I knew that I could win nothing but the voices of the Sinhalese majority, but I asked Tamils and Muslims to participate in my success, and their response was not what I expected," he said. he said during a speech.
The former lieutenant-colonel chose for his enthronement Monday morning a symbolic place. He was sworn in front of the Ruwanweliseya Buddhist temple in the city of Anuradhapura, north of the capital Colombo. The biggest stupa in Sri Lanka, this religious-political monument was built by King Dutugemunu, revered by the Sinhalo-Buddhist majority in the country for defeating an Indian Tamil king who came to invade the island.
In 2009, as Defense Minister, "Gota" commanded Sri Lankan armies when the Tamil separatist rebellion was crushed in 2009. Some 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed in this latest offensive, according to human rights defenders who accuse the Rajapaksa of war crimes. He is also accused of leading "death squads" who have taken dozens of Tamils, political opponents and journalists on white vans. Some of the bodies were later thrown on the road, others were never found.
With AFP