Occupying Sinhala military reminds Eezham Tamils of whose elections they partake

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 August 2020, 20:57 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka has been harassing the Tamil candidates contesting in the general elections, particularly Tamil National Peoples Front (TNPF) led by Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and Tamil Makkal Thesiya Koottani (TMTK) led by CV Wigneswaran in the Northern and Eastern provinces. The SL Army has been deploying surveillance teams and field-bike units during their campaign meetings. The TNPF has publicly alleged that SL military intelligence operatives were behaving in a threatening manner in their election meetings. The SL military intelligence had also threatened its candidates in Batticaloa to withdraw from the elections, the TNPF blamed. TMTK Leader and former Chief Minister of Northern Province, Justice Wigneswaran, was harassed by the field-bike group of the SL Army recently, when he went for an election meeting to Kurunakar, a suburb of Jaffna.
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Colombo aims to get back 20 Trinco oil tanks from India

[TamilNet, Monday, 20 July 2020, 17:27 GMT]
A ministerial delegation was visiting Trincomalee last week to inspect the possibility for getting back twenty of the Trincomalee oil tanks from the Indian Oil Corporation, according to Colombo-based Sunday Times. “We have made a request for 20 tanks, but we hope we can at least start with 15,” the paper reported SL Power and Energy Minister Mahinda Amaraweera as saying on Sunday. New Delhi, which is a major strategic partner of the USA, has been pushing for joint operation of the oil farm, especially during the rule of the previous regime under Maithiriapala Siriseana and Ranil Wickramasinghe.
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Colombo pushes for Indian dispossession of Trincomalee oil tanks

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 June 2020, 22:20 GMT]
Colombo’s Minister of Power, Energy and Transport, Mahinda Amaraweera has met with Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay requesting India to obtain a few of the oil tanks from the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), according to a Daily Mirror report on Wednesday. “I requested Mr Baglay to help us obtain a few of the tanks from the IOC and received a positive response from him. He is of the view was that there needs to be an official-level dialogue between the two parties with the blessings of the Indian government because IOC is a private company,” the Daily Mirror quoted Mr Amaraweera as saying. In the meantime, a piece of news filed by the SL government-owned Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) on Monday said that Mr Amaraweera, in a meeting with the trade unions, was blaming Mr Baglay for not giving positive responses to a letter sent to him earlier in this regard.
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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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SL State continues mega ‘development’ crime in Mannaar amidst COVID-19 curfew

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 May 2020, 18:34 GMT]
Hundreds of Sinhala workers from South and Indian subcontractors are roaming free in Mannaar, between Oalaith-thoduvaay and Thoadda-ve'li, where Tamil villagers are struggling to cope with their livelihood due to COVID-19 curfew. Millionaire investors from the South and the occupying SL State abetted by Asian Development Bank, are not only violating the unanimous and democratic decision of the 21 elected Mannaar Divisional Council against the controversial windmill project, but they also have no concerns about the risk of coronavirus spread in the project area. Naduk-kudaa villagers in Peasaalai protested when the work suddenly resumed in mid-April. Since then, heavy vehicles transporting machinery from Trincomalee have been plying the road. From Thalai-mannaar to Thoadda-ve'li, ten Village (GS) areas of MannaarDivisional Secretariat division are severely affected by the mega project.
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Sinhala-militarised COVID-19 deterrence whips up anti-Muslim sentiments

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 April 2020, 23:52 GMT]
Two of the early COVID-19-related deaths in the island have been those of Muslims. The SL authorities have forcibly cremated their remains, most probably with the instructions from the SL military hierarchy. A few days ago, SL Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, who is also the acting chief of defence staff went to the extent of mentioning two specific instances of persons testing positive for COVID-19 infection as Muslims. Shavendra Silva, who also heads the “National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak,” was reiterating that both those tested positive were Muslims in a video comment to Hiru on 29 March. Coupled with the body language of his insinuating smile, what Shavendra Silva uttered in the Hiru should qualify as a hate speech.
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China Development Bank extends syndicated loan to Colombo by $500 million

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 2020, 22:57 GMT]
Upon the request of the SL Government, Beijing has upsized a syndicated loan with a ten-year tenure and a team from the China Development Bank (CDB) was in Colombo to sign the deal with the SL Government, the Daily Financial Times reported on Wednesday. The fresh funding from China would significantly assist Colombo in managing its debt financing, the news report opined. The latest upsizing adds a new extension to the initial $1 billion syndicated loan. The original loan was of an eight-year tenure from 2018. This has been expanded with a ten-year tenure and “more attractive terms”, the Daily FT reported earlier in the day.
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Gotabaya appoints Silva as head of SL operation centre to prevent corona outbreak

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 March 2020, 22:51 GMT]
SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who commanded the genocidal war on Eezham Tamils in 2009, has appointed his war-crimes alleged genocidal commander Lt Gen Shavendra Silva to “spearhead the National Operation Center for Prevention of COVID- 19 Outbreak,” in the island on Tuesday. In his address to the people on the current status regarding measures against the Coronavirus outbreak, Mr Gotabaya said: “We have faced and won over challenges before. We are ready to face the challenges.” He was making an indirect reference to the 2009 genocidal onslaught against Eezham Tamils as a previous challenge. During the 2004 Tsunami catastrophe, it was the LTTE that received widespread recognition as the force that effectively and quickly responded in helping the people on the ground while the SL military was preoccupied with assessing the possible losses occurred to the LTTE.
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Moragoda’s “think tank” justifies Sinhala apprehension to MCC, proposes renegotiations

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 March 2020, 23:47 GMT]
The so-called Colombo-Trincomalee Economic Corridor (CTEC) was only a new name given to decades-old agenda of demographic genocide wedging territorial contiguity of the Tamil homeland. Previous Rajapaksa government named it “North Central Metro Region (NCMR)” as envisaged by its “National Physical Planning Department” in April 2010. The selection of districts for the implementation of one of the proposed Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) project on land administration has “ironically led to the perception that MCC was to build an economic corridor between Colombo and Trincomalee and facilitate a land grab by foreigners,” claims a recent writeup originating from Milinda Moragoda’s Pathfinder Foundation. The outfit claims its reading of the MCC proposal justified some of the public concerns [of the Sinhalese].
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Increasing pattern of Sinhala officials controlling civil affairs in North-East: Wigneswaran, Mavai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 March 2020, 23:21 GMT]
The previous regime in Colombo was employing Sinhalese from the South to the vacancies of unskilled labourers in the North. For example, Sinhala youth were deployed in large numbers for the job of electricity meter reading in households in the North. However, the present regime has gone a step further installing Sinhalese also in the top positions of the civil administration in the North-East, observed former Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran. He was responding to a question from TamilNet on the recent trends of Sinhalicisation and militarisation of the civil administration in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils at the prolonged absence of the elected provincial councils.
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Gotabaya's ex-commander turned foreign-secretary abets China's genocide of Uyghur Muslims

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 March 2020, 19:11 GMT]
Former SL Navy Commander Admiral (retd) Jayanath Siri Kumara Colombage, who serves SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa as additional secretary on foreign relations has defended China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims at the UN Human Rights Council. The Chinese and Cameroonian missions to the UN in Geneva were sponsoring a symposium as a side-event on Monday. “Every country should deal with terrorism using solutions that fit its conditions the best. The question of what kind of anti-terrorism measures should be taken in Xinjiang should be decided by the Chinese government. No one can tell China what it should do, just as no one can tell Sri Lanka what to do,” Colombage told Global Times on Wednesday. The “Admiral Professor,” a friend of pro-China Shavedra Silva, was talking to the Chinese paper after the symposium along with other “scholars” of his character and calibre from China and Serbia.
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Colombo adopts Nepal’s approach on US MCC negotiations

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 March 2020, 23:31 GMT]
Unlike Nepal, the SL State is yet to sign the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement with the US. While Nepal is struggling to renegotiate the already signed contract, Colombo is trying to review the approved terms and conditions during the previous regime. SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa would make a move in the direction of signing it after the forthcoming parliamentary elections, is the opinion prevailing among the hardline Sinhala nationalists, who are opposed to US-Indian interventions in the island. In the meantime, a committee appointed to review the proposed MCC Compact has submitted a “supplementary report” to SL Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa on Thursday. The report has proposed “appropriate corrections” and “suitable amendments” before obtaining “concurrence of the citizens” as well as the “approval of the Parliament.”
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Visiting Zambian commander requests military training from genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 25 February 2020, 22:13 GMT]
The Republic of Zambia, a landlocked Southern-Central African country, which is struggling with spiralling debt due to China’s Road and Belt Initiative (BRI) investments, has stepped up bilateral relationships with the SL State since last year during Maithiripala Sirisena’s presidency. Zambian Army Commander Lieutenant General William Sikazwe is on a five-day visit to the island since Friday to strengthen the military training and cooperation ties between the countries. Acting SL Chief of Defence Staff and Army Commander Shavendra Silva met the Zambian commander on Monday and discussed bilateral cooperation and exchange of training programmes with the visiting Zambian commander.
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UN human rights system in Geneva lacks courage to make “Sri Lanka” a Permanent Agenda Item

[TamilNet, Friday, 21 February 2020, 20:04 GMT]
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Resolution 30/1 adopted in 2015 was fundamentally flawed as it was based on the “Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Investigation on Sri Lanka” (OISL). The OISL was not mandated to investigate decades-long Tamil genocide as it was conceived as an “internationalised” extension of the Rajapaksa regime’s “Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission” (LLRC), a blueprint for post-2009 genocide. Now, the LLRC-inventors are back, and they are at loggerheads with the inventors of the International-LLRC (OISL). The acid test for the High Commissioner, her office, the OHCHR and the 47-member UNHRC is the notion of SL “co-sponsorship”. If the human rights regime in Geneva wants to save its credibility, it has to make the human rights situation in “Sri Lanka” a Permanent Agenda Item to the council. But, it lacks such courage.
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SL departure from 30/1 could step up external intervention as blessing in disguise: Mavai

[TamilNet, Thursday, 20 February 2020, 23:22 GMT]
If the SL government opts to withdraw from its commitments to the co-sponsored UNHRC Resolution 30/1, such a move will end up escalating the external interference in the island, said Tamil parliamentarian Mavai Senathirajah during his address to the SL Parliament on Thursday. The international intervention was needed to resolve the national question, which is being ignored by the Sinhala politicians, both ruling and the opposition, even after experiencing high financial burden during the three decades of war, he said. While registering ITAK's strong objections to SL Government's reported discourse towards the closure of co-sponsored commitments to the Geneva resolution, the ITAK Leader said the external interference would continue to prevail until the root cause, the ethnic conflict, is resolved.
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Gota silent, Mahinda belatedly responds, Silva evokes Buddhist sentiments with SL Chief Justice

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 February 2020, 23:44 GMT]
Acting SL Chief of Defence Staff and SL Army Commander Shavendra Silva, subjected to a travel ban along with his immediate family members by the US State Department on Friday, was gracing a “mammoth multifaceted Anuradhapura ‘Swarnamali Thupabhivandana’, meritorious programme” on Saturday, said SL Army website on Sunday. In the meantime, SL President and Commander-in-Chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a US citizen, remained silent without commenting anything on the travel ban. Meanwhile, SL Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has issued a statement, attacking the report of the 2011 UN Panel of Experts as “unofficial” and the 2015 OHCHR report and the UNHRC Resolution 30/1 as being based upon the 2011 “unofficial” report, which he described as the source of “unfounded allegations”.
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US congressional delegation meets Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 February 2020, 23:43 GMT]
A day after US State Secretary Mike Pompeo imposed a travel ban on SL Army commander Lt General Shavendra Silva and his immediate family members against visiting the US, two US Congressmen met SL Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo on Saturday. US Ambassador Alaina B. Teplitz accompanied Amerish Babulal Bera (Ami Bera) of the Democratic Party and George Edward Bell Holding of the Republican party, who met Mr Rajapaksa. The US delegation discussed “strengthening of relations” in counter-terrorism, tourism & energy sectors, reported the Daily Mirror. The report didn't have any reference to the US blacklisting.
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Pompeo blacklists pro-China Shavendra giving Gotabaya second chance to toe US line

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 February 2020, 19:44 GMT]
It was Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who led the genocidal onslaught on Eezham Tamils in 2009, giving instructions to the then Major General Shavendra Silva to bomb the hospitals as well as to carry out the brutal white-flag killings. Gotabaya was a US citizen and SL Defence Secretary at that time. Instead of holding the greatest war criminal and genocidaire, liable under US Congress’s War Crimes Act, accountable for the crimes, the Trump administration has opted for a different approach with strategic interests in mind. The US State Department is enticing him offering carrots while pointing its stick selectively against his pro-China Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva. On Friday, US Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo designated Silva under Section 7031(c) of US Department of States Appropriations Act, passing a severe message to Gotabaya not to delay toeing the US line.
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Mike Pompeo slammed, Mahinda Rajapaksa praised over China comments

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 February 2020, 16:59 GMT]
China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang was commending SL Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa for ‘positive’ remarks on China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) during his recent visit to India. Mr Shuang, who is also the deputy director of China’s Foreign Ministry Information Department, was praising Mr Rajapaksa, although the latter had prioritised India as a “relation” over China, which he described a “friend” during his recent trip to India. Mr Shuang, in his daily briefing online, was responding to questions from journalists on matters ranging from the epidemic caused by novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan to Indo-Pacific geopolitics. China was firmly opposed to US State Secretary Mike Pompeo's recent speech, which “fraught with Cold-War mentality and political prejudice,” the Chinese spokesman said.
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Rajapaksa commits to Indo-US maritime agenda, seeks three-year moratorium on loans

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 February 2020, 23:43 GMT]
“We have decided that we must have more intelligence sharing now, and increase the technical assistance [from India], as well as training. [...] In addition, we want to continue our earlier [pre-2015] project for tri-lateral terror and security cooperation between Maldives-India-Sri Lanka. We might have the meeting for that as soon as possible, possibly in the Maldives and discuss how to take the trilateral idea forward,” said Mahinda Rajapaksa in an interview to The Hindu on Saturday. Furthermore, the SL PM told the paper that Colombo was expecting “a moratorium on all loan repayments for three years until we can revive the economy”.
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