\n UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged Sri Lanka's new government to ensure \"long term peace\" as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was set to form a coalition committed to ethnic reconciliation.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The secretary-general encouraged the prime minister and the national unity government to seize this opportunity to advance long-term peace for all Sri Lankans,\" the UN said in a statement.\n<\/p>\n
\n It added Ban had a telephone conversation with Wickremesinghe after he was sworn in at a ceremony in Colombo on Friday.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UN statement received Saturday said Ban congratulated Wickremesinghe and commended his message of \"good governance and national unity\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"He (Ban) noted that the peaceful nature of the polls as well as high voter turn-out were in part a reflection of this message,\" the UN said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UN welcome came as France said Sri Lanka's election was \"one more step forward towards strengthening democracy\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We hope it will also help continue the action taken since the election of President Maithripala Sirisena (in January) in support of human rights and inter-community reconciliation,\" the French foreign ministry said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The opposition Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) of former president Mahinda Rajapakse agreed Friday to a broad-based coalition government with Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP).\n<\/p>\n
\n The UNP, which more than doubled its seats in Monday's parliamentary election, is due to form a new cabinet early next week that will include SLFP members too after securing a coalition agreement.\n<\/p>\n
\n The deal is a remarkable turnaround for a country that appeared firmly in Rajapakse's grip until his surprise defeat in January's presidential polls.\n<\/p>\n
\n The former strongman, who oversaw the crushing of a long-running Tamil separatist insurgency, will sit on the opposition benches along with a dissident group of loyalists.\n<\/p>\n
\n But the SLFP, which had opposed any concessions to the Tamils, now says it will back constitutional reforms aimed at addressing minority rights and ensuring reconciliation.\n<\/p>\n
\n In a memorandum of understanding, the two parties pledged to ensure \"ethnic and religious reconciliation\" in a country that still bears the scars of a separatist war that killed at least 100,000 people between 1972 and 2009.\n<\/p>\n
\n The agreement pledges constitutional reforms to ensure ethnic unity and uphold the rights of minorities.\n<\/p>\n
\n But it does not go into specifics and it remains unclear how the two parties will reconcile past differences, with the UNP favouring extensive devolution of power to the Tamils.\n<\/p>\n
\n The SLFP also opposes investigations into war crimes said to have been committed by troops under Rajapakse's command, while the UNP wants a fresh inquiry.\n<\/p>\n
\n The minority Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which took 16 seats and emerged as the third largest party in a hung parliament, will not join the coalition but has promised the new government \"issue-based\" support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged Sri Lanka's new government to ensure \"long term peace\" as Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was set to form a coalition committed to ethnic reconciliation. \"The secretary-general encouraged the prime minister and the national unity government to seize this opportunity to advance long-term peace for all Sri Lankans,\" the UN […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-1718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n