COLOMBO — Sri Lanka's new leader, Maithripala Sirisena, has named a former diplomat as governor of the northern province, replacing a retired military officer in a bid to forge reconciliation with ethnic minority Tamils after the end of a 26-year war. Since the 2009 end of the war, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa maintained tight security in the region, ignoring requests to appoint a civilian governor to speed reconciliation efforts. The government announced the appointment of H.M.G.S. Palihakkara, a former Sri Lankan permanent envoy to the United Nations, on its official website late on Thursday. “The government has appointed a non-military civil servant as the governor,” it said. During his 38-year career, Palihakkara was also foreign secretary and a disarmament adviser to the UN Secretary-General. He served as a member of a domestic reconciliation panel appointed by Rajapaksa to examine possible violations of human rights in the final phase of the war. — Reuters
