Pakistan’s military HC meets Sinhala nationalist SL Governor of Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Sunday, 31 May 2020, 23:09 GMT]
Pakistan’s High Commissioner Major General (retd) Muhammad Saad Khattak was visiting Trincomalee on Thursday to discuss economic assistance to Eastern Province from Pakistan, media reports in Colombo said. Khattak was posted to Colombo in January 2020 after Gotabaya Rajapaksa became the SL President. Khattak met with the extreme Sinhala nationalist SL Governor to East, Mrs Anuradha Yahampath at her office. The news was Colombo’s geopolitical message to the West and India, Tamil political observers in Trincomalee said.
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SL Army’s 231 Brigade sexually abuses Tamil women in Batticaloa suburb

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 May 2020, 22:38 GMT]
There have been allegations of soldiers of the occupying SL Army’s 231 Brigade Headquarters at Kalladi sexually abusing Tamil women for some time. In recent weeks, the issue has become a menace of increasing threat, community leaders in the area complain, on condition of anonymity. The SLA soldiers, who are predominantly Sinhalese, exploit the poverty-stricken families by providing minor jobs and seeking the households. Higher ranking officers and commanders are also involved in the exploitation, and some women are taken to the military quarters and abused by more than two or three soldiers during the nights, reliable sources said. The soldiers have started to collect details of female-headed households triggering widespread fear, the sources further said.
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Indo-Pacific tensions run high

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 May 2020, 23:14 GMT]
Geopolitics-triggered tensions are running high between the US and China in the South China Sea and between India and China in Galwan valley along the Line of Actual Control in the high mountainous Ladakh union territory of India. While Chinese and US military establishments were issuing statements blaming each other for the escalation, New Delhi remained mostly silent until US President Donald Trump offered to be a “mediator or the arbiter” between New Delhi and Beijing on Wednesday. The Spokesperson of India's Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said India had a direct diplomatic engagement with China on the matter and as “strictly following the procedures laid out in various bilateral agreements and protocols with China to resolve any issue that may arise in the border areas”.
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Sinhalicisation targets Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal and Nanthik-kadal

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 May 2020, 22:03 GMT]
Before 2009, there were no Buddhist viharas in Vadduvaakal and the areas surrounding the lagoon of Nanthik-kadal in Mullaiththeevu. In 2010, a Buddhist vihara was erected at Vadduvaakal, especially after the genocidal onslaught in 2009. Occupying Colombo's Sinhala colonisation was aimed at permanently wedging the demographic contiguity of the Northern and Eastern Provinces by seizing the coastal stretch from Kokkuth-thoduvaay to Kokku'laay and the interior lands. Now, the move is systematically expanded also to include the last tract of the coast, where the genocidal onslaught took place, namely Mu'l'li-vaaykkal and the banks of Nanthik-kadal, says Thurairajah Ravikaran, a former councillor of Nothern Province.
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Occupying Colombo resumes Sinhala colonisation in Batticaloa’s interior

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 May 2020, 22:21 GMT]
Tamil dairy farmers in Batticaloa complain that SL Mahaweli ‘Development’ Authority has recently resumed Sinhala colonisation of Paduvaan-karai region of Batticaloa, particularly the pasturelands at Periya-maathava’nai and Mayilaththa-madu in the administrative divisions of Koa'ra'laip-pattu South (Kiraan) and Ea'raavoorpattu (Chengkalai). The Mahaweli authority has identified land plots to settle more than one thousand Sinhala colonists, and a preparatory meeting has taken place in this regard on Tuesday, said Nimalan Kandsamy, the president of the association of dairy farmers. Sinhala officials belonging to the Mahaweli authority have stepped up their visits into the region. Chamal Rajapaksa, a sibling of SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is the SL Minister of Mahaweli as well as the State Minister of Defence in the ‘caretaker’ cabinet of the Rajapaksa regime at the moment.
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Sinhala monks relaunch hate campaign against Poththuvil Muslims

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 May 2020, 20:43 GMT]
SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on 14 May dispatched his defence secretary Kamal Gunaratne to set up a navy sub-post at the coastal locality known as Mathuragn-cheanai in Poththuvil of Ampaa'rai district. Back in 2015, encroaching Sinhala Buddhist monks had erected a Vihara, Muhudu Maha Viharaya, in the lands belonging to SL Archaeology Department. Then, they started to harass the Tamil-speaking Muslims in the nearby area with the motive of annexing more lands to their temple. The monks were using the electoral politics to mobilise support to their campaign. Now, ahead of the SL Parliamentary elections, the issue has re-surfaced, especially after the chief prelates of the three chapters of the Sinhala Theravada Buddhist Maha Sangha met with Mr Gotabaya on 24 April 2020.
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SL Police blocks journalists covering SL Navy-led quarantine transportation

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 May 2020, 22:43 GMT]
Occupying SL Navy and Police are blocking journalists in the North from exposing the use of Tamil areas as large-scale COVID-19 quarantine centres. Two Tamil journalists were recording video of a convoy of seventeen buses that were bringing individuals from South to SL military-operated quarantine centre at Pampai-madu in Vavuniyaa on Sunday. The SL Navy responded by blocking the A9 Road with the convoy until the SL Police negotiated with the journalists not to publish the video.
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US-India partnership reached unprecedented levels, says outgoing US top diplomat

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 May 2020, 15:14 GMT]
Alice Wells, the outgoing US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, said the military cooperation between India and the US had reached unprecedented levels. The outgoing US top diplomat for South Asia was taking stock of US-India partnership and the Indo-Pacific vision in a virtual call with the Atlantic Council think-tank on Wednesday. So far, the countries have concluded the four of the five major defence-enabling agreements and that she expected the last one, the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA), to be signed within the end of 2020. “It’s quite remarkable to think that the same missile defence system protecting Washington, NASAMS, will soon be protecting New Delhi,” she said.
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Gotabaya’s 19 May speech, outcome of defeatism, irresponsibility, say Colombo-based Tamils

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 May 2020, 18:34 GMT]
The political struggle of the Tamil people in the North-East was waged independent of the external powers, and it continues to remain so as the people who braved the military restrictions demonstrated it on 18 May. It is Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is talking from the political backyard sustained by the external powers, notably the powers at loggerheads, the US and China. His speech on 19 May was a defeatist response to the political resolve demonstrated by the Tamils on the previous day, commented veteran human rights activist and Colombo-based Tamil Catholic priest Fr M. Sakthivel. In the meantime, Colombo-based Tamil politician Mano Ganesan questioned whether Mr Rajapaksa was transforming the SL State into a rogue state as Myanmar, North Korea and what Zimbabwe. He characterised Rajapaksa’s threat to withdraw from global bodies as an irresponsible stance.
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Eight SL Navy personnel test positive in controversial quarantine centre in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 May 2020, 23:11 GMT]
At least eight SL Navy personnel among the five-hundred individuals brought from South to SL military-operated quarantine centre at Keappaa-pulavu of Mullaiththeevu district in the North have tested positive for COVID-19. Two SLN sailors tested positive on Thursday and six more on Friday, according to the Mullaiththeevu office of the Regional Director of Health Services. The grassroots organisations and civic representatives have condemned the SL military for converting the small building of Pilak-kudiyiruppu primary health care centre, located in an area where Tamil people have been resettling after the area was released back to the people in 2011.
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TYO-UK pushes back on British Foreign Secretary's May 18 tweet

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 May 2020, 15:56 GMT]
On May 18, 2020 Dominic Raab, the British Foreign Secretary, posted a Twitter message about his conversation with SL Minister DCR Gunawardena and the “close relationship” between the UK and genocidal Sri Lanka. The Foreign Secretary’s tweet included an image of the Sinhala Lion Flag and the Union Jack. UK based activists in the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO-UK) along with fourteen Tamil student societies responded, “[Y]our tweet regarding UK’s close relationship with the Sri Lankan government, is bittersweet to the Tamil Community,” While Boris Johnson recovered from COVID-19, Dominic Raab served as Deputy Prime Minister.
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SL TID interrogates outspoken Tamil activist VS Sivakaran in Mannaar

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 May 2020, 22:09 GMT]
A five-member team of the notorious ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID) that from Colombo to Mannaar carried out an intimidating interrogation of VS Sivakaran, the chairman of Thamizh Theasia Vaazhvurimaich Changkam on Wednesday. The SL TID personnel led by an inspector-rank officer were posing questions in the two-and-a-half-hour investigation about Mr Sivakaran’s role in Maaveerar-Naa’l (Heroes’ Day) marked on 27 November 2019. They also warned the outspoken critic of genocidal Colombo that he was on a watchlist for organising remembrance days for people whom the TID blamed as “terrorists”. The harassment comes two days after Eezham Tamils braved SL military and police harassments in North and East marking Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance and Awakening Day against Tamil Genocide on Tuesday. Sivakaran was formerly the secretary of the youth wing of Ilankai Tamil Arasuk Kadchi (ITAK).
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IBC's sister-media Gagana used to threaten Tamil villagers in Trinco on 18 May Remembrance

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 May 2020, 16:23 GMT]
A Sinhala-language news website, Gagana, owned by IBC Tamil Ltd., is being used in a campaign of reporting to prompt the intelligence wing of the occupying SL military to hunt down Tamil grassroots activists at Ki'li-veddi in Moothoor division of the Trincomalee district. A news item published in gaganga.lk with screenshots of social media messages supposedly shared in the accounts of three Tamils on the occasion of 18 May Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance has put the lives of three persons, particularly one of them, in great danger, rights activists in Trincomalee said. The Sinhala ‘news’ accused the Tamil youth sharing the posts as promoters of “terrorism” through social media. It went further claiming that the Tamil youth were making money from “pro-LTTE Tamil diaspora.”
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Occupying SL military desecrates Remembrance Day candles, harasses Tamil politicians

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2020, 23:20 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military and SL Police were blocking Tamil political parties from marking Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance Day in Jaffna (TNPF) and Batticaloa (TNPF and ITAK) meting out various harassments. Former Chief Minister Justice CV Wigneswaran (TMK) was turned away at a checkpoint by the SL military Monday morning. The SL Police in Jaffna approached the SL judiciary on Sunday in a bid to block TNPF leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and his fellow party members from attending the Remembrance event. The SL Police was arguing that they had failed to comply with COVID-19 measures during the remembrance events held earlier. However, they managed to convince the judge on Monday reversing the court decision with the help of a team of attorneys. Meanwhile, Sinhala soldiers were roaming around desecrating the remembrance lights that were lit by the people in Jaffna city in the evening.
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Remembrance event urges Tamils to own justice project, establish genocidal intent of Sinhala state

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 May 2020, 07:11 GMT]
The UN and the West, adopting a “soft approach” towards the “Sinhala state” have not only paved the way for diluting the gravity of its crimes. They also emboldened the SL State to wage unabatedly its post-2009 “structural genocide” against Tamils in the North-East, said the declaration of the main May 18 Remembrance event, held at Mu'l'livaaykkaal on Monday. One of the lessons learnt by the Tamils was that they must be careful in trusting anyone, who portray themselves as the saviours of Tamils. Demanding justice for the genocide must be a mechanism to pursue the cause of Tamil national question, especially by “proving the intent of the genocide,” the statement read by Fr Leo Armstrong proclaimed. Around three-hundred Eezham Tamils braved the seven-layered SL military blockade in their resolve to mark the eleventh May 18 Remembrance and Awakening Day against Tamil genocide emotionally.
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The Guardian succumbs to pressure from SL High Commission on indigenous term Eelam

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 May 2020, 16:54 GMT]
“Eelam is an indigenous name for which popular holiday island?,” was a question posed by a travel quiz published by the Guardian on 15 May. The quiz had rightfully stated the term, which is one of the ancient names for the island. However, in a political move, the High Commission of the unitary state of genocidal “Sri Lanka” reacted against the term “Eelam” sending a letter misinforming the paper that the term had “never been used as an indigenous name for Sri Lanka”. The paper has removed the question without defending the term “Eelam”.
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SL Army fires at Tamil youth in Point Pedro, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 May 2020, 12:26 GMT]
22-year-old Anushan Pasupathy sustained three gunshot wounds as the occupying SL Army (SLA) opened fire at the Tamil youth while he was riding a motorbike between Kaanthiyoor and Mu'raavil in Point Pedro, Jaffna, around 10:30 pm on Thursday. One of the SL Army soldier groups, deployed on Jaffna-Point Pedro Road fired at him without any provocation. The youth has been admitted to the hospital with three wounds. The incident has taken place near Manthikai hospital at Point Pedro in Vadamaraadchi. Three-member groups of SL Army soldiers have been deployed along the roads, junctions and suburbs in Jaffna to carry out the duties of the SL Police. In recent days, there have been reports of increasing violent acts by the Sinhala soldiers, who are stationed in the occupied Tamil homeland. The SLA soldiers claim that they are controlling the spread of COVID-19 as well as assisting the SL Police.
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IC deceived Tamils on genocide investigation: Students of Faculty of Art at Jaffna University

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 May 2020, 21:28 GMT]
The student community of Jaffna University symbolically marked the second day of Mu'l'likvaaykkaal Remembrance week by lighting candles at the entrance to the university at 7 pm on Thursday. However, SL Police cordoned off the gate and threatened the students that it was a violation of measures against the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. The students reminded the police that they were maintaining proper social distancing and the number of students involved in the symbolic event. The policemen were harassing the students with the claim that they were empowered to detain and hand over the students to the SL military for COVID-19 quarantining. In the meantime, the student leaders at the Faculty of Art issued a statement condemning the international community and the United Nations for failing to deliver international justice to the genocide committed against the Tamils by the SL State.
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Remembrance of Tamil Genocide and Resistance commences in occupied Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 May 2020, 22:55 GMT]
The eleventh annual Mu'l'livaaykkaal Remembrance, commemorating tens of thousands of deaths and enforced disappearances in the genocidal war waged by the SL State against the nation of Eezham Tamils with the abetment by external powers, has commenced as the awakening week of Tamil nation against genocide. The remembrance week began with a commemoration at Nanthik-kadal near Mu'l'livaaykkaal in Mullaiththeevu and another event at Chemmani mass grave site in Jaffna on Wednesday. The occupying Sinhala Army was deployed in large number, and the SL Police was trying to block those who mobilised to launch the remembrance week. However, the participants braved the harassments in Jaffna and Vanni in commencing the memorial week.
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India neither ‘balancer’ or ‘challenger’ to China in Indo-Pacific: Aussie think-tank

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 May 2020, 23:03 GMT]
“India’s economic dependence on China, and its recent protectionist response, limits its ability to act as a balancer or challenger to China in the Indo-Pacific,” argues Dr Priya Chacko, the senior lecturer in International Politics at the University of Adelaide. The author who specialises in the politics, political economy and foreign policy of India, and the geopolitics and geoeconomics of the Indo-Pacific, in a briefing published through a think-tank, urges other governments “to take heed of these constraints when forming expectations of India’s role in the region”. The briefing paper titled “India’s economic dependence on China and Indo-Pacific integration”, was published by Perth USAasia Centre on 05 May 2020.
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Outspoken CCP called back from North, former commander appointed as top health bureaucrat

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 May 2020, 20:25 GMT]
Consultant Community Physician (CCP) Dr Murali Vallipuranathan, who raised credible scientific questions of SL military-operated COVID-19 isolation centre in Kaangkeasan-thu'rai (KKS) in Jaffna, has been transferred away from North to South. The move comes after Vallipuranathan's case studies called into question the “dormitory” type of the military-run isolation that resulted in cross infections spreading the disease among sixteen of twenty people who were isolated by the SL military at KKS. Northern Provincial Director of Health Services, Dr A Ketheeswaran, has received instructions from Colombo's Health Ministry to transfer Dr Vallipuranathan to Colombo. In the meantime, SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has appointed the Director-General of SL Army Health Services, Major General Sanjeewa Munasinghe as the Secretary of the Health Ministry in Colombo.
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Mannaar fishers confront off-season right after Pandemic curfew ravaging their livelihood: Alam

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 May 2020, 21:24 GMT]
Most of the fisher families in Mannaar live below the poverty line. The fishers have been severely affected due to curfew and other measures imposed to control the spread of COVID-19. The district, as well as many other districts in the island, have been under curfew since 20 March 2020. Although there has been some assistance, such as the advance payments for Samurdhi beneficiaries, no other humanitarian aid has been forthcoming, says Noor Alam Mohammed, the deputy head of Mannaar Fisheries Federation. The only exception has been the activity of some NGOs assisting the most vulnerable, he said. Meanwhile, the off-season has also arrived adding to their plight, Mr Alam said.
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Occupying Sinhala soldiers mete out revenge assaults against Tamil families in Jaffna, Vanni

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 May 2020, 11:31 GMT]
A group of Sinhala soldiers, believed to be coming from the 522 Brigade camp of the occupying SL Army in Point Pedro, entered the house of Aingaran Achchitha and assaulted the women and children who were home in Vadamaraadchi East, Jaffna. 64-year-old Vijeyaluxmy Pathmanathan, the mother of Achchitha's husband, has been admitted to Point Pedro Base Hospital with injuries. The incident occurred around 10:45 pm Friday. The soldiers were searching for Aingaran, a former LTTE member, who had slapped a soldier following a minor quarrel sometime back in January. Mr Aingaran, fearing extra-judicial revenge, has gone underground as the SLA soldiers have been searching for him.
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Gotabaya Rajapaksa is no more US-citizen, but SL military relationship with US continues

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 May 2020, 23:50 GMT]
SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s name has finally appeared in the Federal Register of the US Government, which publishes a quarterly list of individuals, who have chosen to expatriate. Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s name appeared in the list issued on Friday. Mr Gotabaya was commanding the genocidal war against Eezham Tamils as a US citizen with a well-knit link with the US Department of Defense, the Pentagon in the run up to the genocidal onslaught in the island. Mr Gotabaya was also the signatory of a defence agreement with the US in 2007, which lasted till 2017.
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Pompeo praises work of outgoing US point person for South Asia

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 May 2020, 23:38 GMT]
Acting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia (SCA) Alice Wells, who has been serving under US President Donald Trump for over three years now, is set to retire later this month. Ms Alice has advanced strong US-India ties to unprecedented levels but was also touching human rights issues on Kashmir. “I want to give a shout out to one of my colleagues, Alice Wells, as she prepares to depart the State Department. She has done remarkable work,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on Wednesday. Ms Wells was serving in Acting position and not made Assistant Secretary of State for SCA during the well-appreciated tenure. After Indian-American Nisha Biswal, the position of Assistant Secretary of State for SCA has remained vacant for over three years.
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COVID-19 testing at Jaffna University temporarily suspended

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 May 2020, 23:17 GMT]
Following critical reports of unreliable COVID-19 testing at the laboratories of the Medical Faculty of the University of Jaffna and the prolonged delay in operationalising the test equipment at the Teaching Hospital of Jaffna, the testing activities at the Jaffna University seem to have been temporarily suspended with the explanation of ‘reconstruction work’ at the facility. In the meantime, the State Intelligence Service (SIS) of the SL State has launched an investigation to trace the source of the news leaked to media following reports of failing control tests, informed medical sources in Jaffna told TamilNet.
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SL State ranked weakest among emerging economies in South Asia, 61st out of 66 globally

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 May 2020, 22:08 GMT]
The Economist has listed “Sri Lanka” the 61st weakest state out of 66 developing economies of the world in a global ranking that used four indicators of financial strength. Bangladesh was ranked 9th and India 18th among the 33 strongest countries. Pakistan was ranked 43rd. Sri Lanka was 61st on the list, right between Tunisia and Angola, five above Venezuela, which was ranked as the weakest with most financial peril. The Economist released the details on countries facing debt distress in its May 2nd edition. “About 30 are in distress or flirting with it. The alphabet of alarm runs from Angola to Zambia,” the report said.
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US expert mulls idea of expanding US Indo-Pacific security alliance into Quad Plus

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 May 2020, 22:16 GMT]
US Foreign Policy expert and Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center, Paula J. Dobriansky has mooted the idea of further expanding the emerging US-led Indo-Pacific security alliance Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) into “Quad Plus” incorporating economic security. The former security affairs diplomat has proposed to involve three states, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province. “The point would be to pair economic concerns with national-security aims, protect intellectual property, and ensure reliable access to public-health goods—so the US is no longer at the mercy of Beijing for supplies in a pandemic,” she wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday.
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SLAF Chief attends virtual conference hosted by US PACAF to discuss resuming joint exercises

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 May 2020, 22:29 GMT]
The Commander of the United States Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., was hosting a virtual teleconference call with the air chiefs of nineteen countries on 30 April 2020. The PACAF Commander was discussing “virtual Subject Matter Expert exchanges or continuing the practice of physically distancing aircrews while enhancing opportunities to train and integrate in the air,” according to a news release issued by the US Pacific Air Forces on Saturday. The Commander of the SL Air Force (SLAF) Air Marshal Dambure Liyanage Sumangala Dias, who took part in the Pacific Air Chiefs Symposium (PACS 19) in December 2019, joined the conference. The SLAF participation is an indication that SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a “former” US citizen, considers his airforce as part of the US and India-led alliance in the airspace of the Indo-Pacific, Tamil political observers in Jaffna said.
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Pandemic underscores need for reviving Cooperative Societies in North-East

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 May 2020, 21:36 GMT]
SL State-owned retail chain and private supermarket food cities have failed to provide critical supplies at subsidised prices to the people of North-East during the pandemic measures. However, the Multi-Purpose Cooperative Societies (MPCS’s), which were almost in stalemate for years, have again found their use invaluable during the pandemic curfew and lockdown in 2020. The cooperative societies played a crucial role in providing reasonably priced products for a long time, especially during the times of war. The MPCS’s were particularly active during the LTTE-run de-facto state of Tamil Eelam as they were effectively organised and managed without corruption.
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