Sri Lanka appoints Tamil as chief justice ‎

Sri Lanka's president has appointed a Tamil judge as the new chief justice, a move seen as a bid to bolster the independence of the judiciary which was politicized under the previous regime.  Sixty-two year old judge Kanagasabapathy Sripavan, who was sworn in in the capital Colombo on Friday as the head of the Supreme Court, is the first member of the minority community to hold the post in decades.

President Maithripala Sirisena came to power on Jan. 9, ending a decade of rule by his former ally Mahinda Rajapaksa, a period that critics said was marred by nepotism and corruption.  The new leader, from the majority Sinhalese group, has promised to seek reconciliation with the Tamils after a separatist war that ended in 2009 and to restore confidence in the legal system.  About 100,000 people have been killed during the conflict that erupted in the 1980s.  Sripavan is the first Tamil to be appointed to the top position since 1991.  The move comes two days after the president declared illegal the 2013 impeachment of former chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake.  Bandaranayake had been sacked by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa over corruption claims - a move widely criticised by the international community and human rights groups.  Bandaranayake, who has always denied corruption claims, returned to the post on Wednesday - only to retire a day later once her name had been cleared.