Tamil, Sinhala policemen slain in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 November 2018, 10:31 GMT]
Unknown attackers have killed two SL policemen, a Tamil and a Sinhalese, who were manning a check post near Valai-i'ravu bridge, 5 km south-west of Batticaloa city in the early hours of Friday. 23-year-old Ganesh Dinesh, a Tamil policeman from Periya-neelaava'nai in Ampaa'rai was found shot and killed and bound to his chair outside the check-post. 34-year-old W N L Prasanna from Udugama in Galle was found dead at his bed inside the post with cut injuries to his throat. Residents said the killings could be related to a dispute between the police and a criminal gang operating with its backing. However, Colombo media was quick to blame it on Rajapaksa-aligned ex-paramilitary V. Muralitharan alias Karuna.
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Germany abets Sinhalicisation of education in occupied Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2018, 18:02 GMT]
A'riviyal-nakar (Knowledge city) was a concept developed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the de-facto administration of the Tamil state in the suburb of Ki'linochchi. The University of Jaffna established the Faculty of Engineering in 2013 at A'riviyal-nakar, which is located 7km south of Ki'linochchi town. The ‘Sri Lanka’ German Training Institute (SLGTI) conceived during the regime of Rajapaksa in 2010 as a “vocational training project for the regions affected by the war,” started to function in 2014. Now, 80% of the students are Sinhala students. While all other technical institutions operating in the North use Tamil as the default language of learning and teaching, Tamil is not used as the language of education at the SLGTI, which is operating in “A'riviyal-nakar”.
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Sinhala police threaten organisers of Heroes Day events in Vadamaraadchi, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 November 2018, 21:13 GMT]
Unknown attackers, believed to be policemen from Point Pedro station, on Tuesday night smashed the doors and windows of the residence of Mr Pon Sakthivel, a fisheries society activist and poet, who was involved in mobilising the Heroes Day Remembrance event at Chuppar-madam. The attackers had come with the intention of causing bodily harm to Mr Sakthivel and his brother, fisheries society sources told TamilNet on Wednesday. However, the family members who sensed suspicious activity in the vicinity of their house decided to spend the night with a relative elsewhere. Unable to find anyone in the house, the attackers have smashed the door and window, the sources said.
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Tamil Eelam war heroes emotionally commemorated, people defy SL Court orders

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 November 2018, 17:40 GMT]
The oppressed Eezham Tamils gathered in large numbers on Tuesday as never before in post-2009 remembrance day events to mark the public commemoration of Tamil Eelam great heroes (Maaveerar) at more than thirty heroes’ cemeteries which the occupying SL military had razed to the ground in the eight districts of the North-East. The people also defied the verbal court order in Jaffna, and the written court order in Batticaloa, which prohibited playing LTTE produced songs. Eezham Tamils went ahead with playing the main maaveerar-song, which vows to stay the course of the liberation of Tamil state.
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Sinhala ethnocracy's entrenched insecurity, ultimate spoiler of stability: Gajendrakumar

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 November 2018, 21:07 GMT]
Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the leader of Tamil National Peoples' Front, was the first Tamil politician to warn – well in advance – that the powers collaborating with the SL State were risking instability in the island. The former Tamil parliamentarian came with the observation, which he has been implying for a long time, also in an interview to TamilNet in September 2018, two weeks ahead of Lt. Col. Thileepan's remembrance in Jaffna. The current political instability, predicted by Gajendrakumar in September, happened within 45 days, sending shockwaves across the international community. In a follow-up interview, just ahead of Maaveerar Remembrance in Jaffna, he indicates that any strategic collaboration between the external powers and the SL State, which is Sinhala-Buddhist ethnocracy in nature, would be doomed to falter, because of its entrenched attitude of insecurity.
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India's RAW behind ‘Tiger identity erasure’ campaign

[TamilNet, Friday, 23 November 2018, 21:15 GMT]
The foreign intelligence agency of India, known as the Research and Analysis Wing’ (RAW), has advised its counterpart in the island to transform Tamil Eelam Maaveerar Naa'l (Heroes Day) as well as all other remembrance days of the LTTE members and cadres into remembrance days bereft of identity, politics and valour. The only way to do this is getting rid of terminology associated with the LTTE, Tamil nationhood, the concept of Tamil valour. Usage of the terms ‘maaveerar’ and ‘Eelam’ should also be avoided, the RAW has advised, according to informed paramilitary sources in the island.
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Tamils determined to mark Heroes Day braving institutionally genocidal SL apparatus

[TamilNet, Thursday, 22 November 2018, 21:51 GMT]
Eezham Tamils in their occupied homeland started the Tamil Eelam Heroes week by preparing for the marking of November 27 Great Heroes Day (Maaveerar Naa'l) at the genocidally annihilated heroes cemeteries at 33 different locations in the North and East. The occupying unitary state – regardless of the political turmoil prevailing in the South — is bent on using its institutionally anti-Tamil legal system to block Tamils from using Maaveerar-associated symbolism during the remembrance. The people on the ground are determined to mark the day with due respect for tens of thousands of Tamil men and women, who sacrificed their lives for the restoration of Tamil sovereignty through an armed struggle, which was the last resort to protect their nation from ultimate annihilation.
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Sinhala colony of Weli-oya extended by 47 sq km in Vanni

[TamilNet, Monday, 19 November 2018, 13:03 GMT]
Occupying Colombo has silently absorbed lands from the adjoining districts of Vavuniyaa and Trincomalee to expand the recently Sinhalicised Weli-oya (Ma'nal-aa'ru in Tamil) division. A year ago, the figure of land was at 117.1 sq km. Now, the officials at Mullaith-theevu District Secretariat confirm that the land use of the ‘Sinhala Only’ division as 164.2 sq km. The additional 47 km sq is around 11,639 acres in extent. The division that was carved out for the exclusive purpose of Sinhalicisation to wedge the North from the East is getting bigger and bigger, they said.
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SL Governor shuts down Heritage Centre, escalates militarisation in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Saturday, 17 November 2018, 14:19 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's colonial Governor of the Northern Province, Reginald Cooray, has shut down the Heritage Centre in Jaffna, which was launched by the elected Northern Provincial Council under former Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran and NPC Minister of Education Dr K. Sarveswaran. The SL Governor has removed the heritage artefacts and pulled off the plaque on the wall. Only the board on the premises remains. In the meantime, Cooray has deployed the SL military to launch a garden (park) at the mass grave site of Chemma'ni. Mr Cooray has also convened meetings bringing SL military commanders in Jaffna and Jaffna and E. Arnold, the mayor of the elected Jaffna Municipal Council and instructed the Tamil civil servants in Jaffna to ‘liaise’ with the occupying Sinhala military, civil sources in Jaffna said.
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Quad formation discusses “rules-based order” in Indo-Pacific

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 November 2018, 17:11 GMT]
The governments of the USA, India, Japan and Australia on Thursday issued statements through their respective foreign ministries echoing “rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific” in their statements. The statements come after the senior officials of the Quad countries met in Singapore on Thursday for consultations on addressing the Chinese challenge in the Indo-Pacific region. Another phrase featured in all the four statements, including that of India, was “ASEAN centrality”. The statements from three countries, except India, mentioned ‘Sri Lanka’ and the Maldives.
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Trump's top economic advisor plans to rival China's BRI through Quad

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 13 November 2018, 21:48 GMT]
The Vice President of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) David Bohigian has revealed that US Vice President Mike Pence is set to present details of a joint ‘development’ financing scheme to rival Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the South China Morning Post reported on Friday. In a recent interview to the Washington Post, he warned Beijing and urged to change its behaviour if it wanted to avoid a new cold war with the USA. Pence is visiting Singapore on Tuesday to attend the annual summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Australia, India, Japan, and the USA form the Quad formation, which is also an informal defence formation of the USA in the Indo-Pacific.
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US House Democrats, blind on genocide, express escapist concerns on SL 'reforms'

[TamilNet, Monday, 12 November 2018, 11:07 GMT]
Dina Titus, the co-chair of the Sri Lanka Caucus in the US House of Representatives, has stated along with fellow Democrat Representatives, David Price and Eliot L. Engel on Friday, urging the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena to uphold the commitment of his government to democratic governance and reopen the SL Parliament. In a letter to Mr Sirisena, the US Democratic members expressed deep concern that the suspension of Sri Lanka’s Parliament circumvents the country’s constitution and democratic process.
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Sirisena dissolves SL parliament as Rajapaksa fails on numbers game

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 November 2018, 23:06 GMT]
Maithiripala Sirisena, the executive president of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka, dissolved the SL Parliament on Friday. Mr Sirisena was citing a mixture of constitutional clauses to justify his decision. The move comes as the newly appointed SL Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa reportedly failed to secure the majority needed to justify his appointment. There were widespread allegations that the Rajapaksa brothers were investing ‘Chinese money’ to buy over the parliamentarians. However, such buy-overs have not taken place to the alleged extent. Tamil political observers, not aligned to any of the geopolitical camps, believe that both the USA and China, who are the leading global actors as well as India which has emerged as the main ally of the Trump administration in the Indian Ocean Region, seem to be at a wait-and-see mode at the moment.
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SL Police blocks memorial monument for 1984 massacre victims in Vanni

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 07 November 2018, 11:04 GMT]
The police of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka, stationed at Oddu-chuddaan has blocked the resettled Tamil families of Othiya-malai village from proceeding with erecting a memorial monument for civilians who were massacred by the occupying Sinhala military in 1984. Only 50 of 110 families living in the village in 1984 managed to resettle after 27 years in 2012. Since then, they use to mark the massacred victims at the Rural Development Society building, where the massacre took place. This year, the families resolved to put up a small memorial monument in remembrance of their loved ones. However, the SL Police has warned the families against erecting the memorial.
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SL military defies court order, erects Buddha statue in Mullaith-theevu

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 November 2018, 09:28 GMT]
Emboldened by the recent re-emergence of Rajapaksa brothers in the South, the occupying Sinhala Army has erected a Buddha statue at Neeraavi-eattam (Neeraaviyadi) on Friday. The SLA 593 Brigade was openly violating a stay order on converting Pazhaiya-Chemmalai Pi'l'liaayar temple into a Buddhist vihara, Karai-thu'raip-pattu Divisional Secretariat officials told TamilNet on Monday. The SL Army soldiers were having a Buddha statue covered in a glass box inside their camp. On Friday, they moved it to the disputed Neeraaviyadi temple, the sources said. Both the UNP regime, which was controlling the SL Archaeology Department until recently, SL President Maithiripala Sirisena and Mahinda Rajapaksa's SLPP have been competing to Sinhalicise Neeraaviyadi, the Tamil officials said.
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Wickramasinghe worse in China dealings: Namal Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2018, 23:21 GMT]
“If you look at the agreements that honourable Ranil Wickramasinghe got into with certain countries [China], it is far worse than [what my father did in] getting them to invest in our country,” Namal Rajapaksa, the eldest son of Mahinda Rajapaksa, said as his response to a direct question posed by the Indian NDTV correspondent in Colombo. His question was that there was a fear in Indian quarters that the return of Rajapaksa would lead to a pro-China tilt.
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UN late to demand Sirisena to honour Geneva commitments: ICP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 November 2018, 23:02 GMT]
The United Nations was late to demand SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, whom the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has previously praised, to respect its commitments made in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, reported Inner City Press (ICP), which covers the U.N. activities in New York, on Friday. To a question posed by the ICP on 29 October, the UN system was responding that its Resident Coordinator met with the SL Speaker of Parliament and the reply only mentioned the UN representative as stressing respect to constitutional provisions. There was no mention on upholding commitments made by the SL State in Geneva. Only on 01 November the UN Secretary-General spoke with SL President and encouraged Sirisena's Government to uphold its “earlier commitments to human rights, justice and reconciliation, in line with Human Rights Council resolutions,” the ICP observed.
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Sirisena's ‘Sri Lanka’ with biggest decline in Internet freedom in 2018

[TamilNet, Friday, 02 November 2018, 23:07 GMT]
Internet freedom declined dramatically in ‘Sri Lanka’ in 2018 following major restrictions to connectivity and social media platforms during communal violence in March, says a comprehensive global study of internet freedom in 65 countries. The study was carried out by the Washington DC based Freedom House, which said its study covered 87 per cent of the world’s internet users. Of the 65 countries assessed, 26 have been on an overall decline since June 2017, compared with 19 that registered net improvements. The biggest score declines took place in Egypt and Sri Lanka, followed by Cambodia, Kenya, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Venezuela, the report said.
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US think tank: Rajapaksa unlikely to deal with China as before

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 November 2018, 23:51 GMT]
“Rajapaksa learned hard lessons from his last experience dealing with China on Belt and Road investments,” Andrew Small, a senior Fellow with Washington-based German Marshall Fund (GMF), was quoted as saying by New York-based Bloomberg on Thursday.  “Although Beijing will be happy to see his return – and was expecting it in the next round of elections anyway – it is unlikely that the dynamic will be the same as the last time he was in power,” the Asia expert has further said.
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