Visits by Chinese, Russian foreign ministers to coincide with the stopover of US top diplomat

[TamilNet, Saturday, 11 January 2020, 23:04 GMT]
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is set to arrive in Colombo on Monday, one day ahead of the already-announced visit by Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov. The Russian FM is scheduled to visit Colombo on his way to attend a conference on geopolitics organised by the Indian External Affairs Ministry and Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. In the meantime, Alice Wells, the US principal deputy assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, scheduled to attend the Indian conference, is also arriving in Colombo on Monday. The Chinese and Russian Foreign Ministers, as well as the US Deputy State Secretary, will be meeting Gotabaya Rajapaksa, media reports in Colombo said.
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Sampanthan indirectly implicates India, US, EU, UK, Japan, Norway for Tamil predicament post-2009

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 January 2020, 23:10 GMT]
Despite all the valid criticisms against the revisionist TNA hierarchy, which has misled the occupied nation of Eezham Tamils by deviating from the fundamentals of the democratically mandated aspiration after 2009, one should appreciate TNA Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan for strait-forwardly reiterating, especially in recent times, the names of the regional and international formations ultimately responsible to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The countries and the alliances mentioned by Mr Sampanthan include India, USA, Japan, Norway and the European Union with the UK. Sampanthan refers to the block of countries excluding India as the “international community”, and these countries were formally represented by identifiable individuals who served the formation of Tokyo Co-Chair Donors. A troika of diplomats was representing India at the height of the war.
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Gotabaya deploys PTA against protesting families of missing persons

[TamilNet, Thursday, 09 January 2020, 22:53 GMT]
The coordinator of the continuous protest in Vavuniyaa Jeyavanitha Kasippillai is again facing harassment from the ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division of the SL Police which is compelling her to appear for an investigation under the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The cabinet of Gotabaya Rajapaksa has recently refused to withdraw the PTA. The latest harassment comes as the attempts by Douglas Devananda, an ex-paramilitary collaborator of Rajapaksa regime, miserably failed to end the continuous protests in the North and East. The families of Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of the occupying Sinhala military have spent more than 1,055 days in continuous protests in the North and East.
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61 parents of missing persons have perished while continuing protest beyond 1,050 days

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 January 2020, 23:30 GMT]
The kith and kin of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of the occupying Sinhala military are passing away, one by one. Their deaths occur as the SL State, and the global forces behind the deceptive ‘transitional justice’ mechanism continue to remain deaf to their demand of establishing the truth of what had happened to their loved ones. While a section of families avoid protests succumbing to the so-called pragmatic view that the SL military had assassinated all the missing family members under its captivity, the protesting families want an official answer establishing what had happened to their loved ones. 72-year-old Rasendram Soosaippillai from Oalaith-thoduvaay in Mannaar was the 61st parent to die without a response from the SL authorities on the whereabouts of his son, who was abducted ten years ago in Mannaar.
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Eezham Cinema takes shape with Chinam-ko'l movie filmed in occupied Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 January 2020, 23:41 GMT]
Sinamkol (Ciṉamkoḷ/சினம்கொள்), meaning “infuriate”, is a theatrical movie filmed in the occupied Tamil Eelam narrating the situation of former LTTE freedom fighters. The critically acclaimed film gets screened in Europe and North America this weekend (03-05 January) in eight countries, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom and the USA, after a series of successful premiere shows. Canada-based Ranjith Joseph, the story writer and the director of the film, has demonstrated incredible ingenuity in circumventing the censorship hazards of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka in making the movie, which was shot in 70 locations in the three districts of Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu and Jaffna in 2017. The approach of the story is genuine to the core in all its aspects.
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Families of missing Tamils in Vanni turn their protest against EPDP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 December 2019, 17:41 GMT]
The families of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of the occupying Sinhala military in the genocidal war up to 2009 have turned the focus of their protest against SL Minister Douglas Devananda, who has been a close ally of the Rajapaksa regime. Mr Devananda's EPDP was a former Tamil paramilitary group, operated by the occupying Sinhala military. The families have been irked by the attempts by Devananda to dilute their continues protests that have passed one thousand days this month.
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No need for Eezham Tamils to ‘namō namō’ Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 December 2019, 21:10 GMT]
Eezham Tamils ended their emotional attachment to the 1951 ‘namō namō tāyē’ (‘sri laṅkā tāyē’) when their political move for powersharing in what they aspired as the Federal Republic of Ceylon was thoroughly denounced by the Sinhala nation in 1972. The dream for an inclusive and federal Ceylon/Ilaṅkai (Lanka) or Eezham, as Tamils had identified the island for centuries, lost its meaning with the constitutionalization of the ‘Sri’ prefix. The term meant ‘auspiciousness’, but in practice implied the establishment of the ‘holy’ island as chosen by the Buddha to be exclusively destined for the Sinhala people with the mission to protect Buddhism. When it gained constitutional precedent, the Tamil attachment to it ended. After decades of genocidal hegemony and without a political solution to their national question, Eezham Tamils have no moral or legal connection to the anthem.
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Tamils learning lessons from ICJ-case against Myanmar, ICC-investigation on Israel

[TamilNet, Monday, 23 December 2019, 22:29 GMT]
The Tamil diaspora organisations should seriously evaluate their post-2009 international legal activism, comparing the ICC-based war-crimes move of the Palestinians and the ICJ-based genocide case against the state of Myanmar, both of which have gained milestone achievements in December 2019. The Tamil organisations should be asking a pertinent question as to why did they fail to pursue the International Court of Justice (ICJ)-oriented discourse despite repeated reminders coming from international legal experts such as US-based Professor Francis Boyle. The ICJ is the only place where state responsibility for genocide could be addressed. Unlike some Tamils and their academics believe, no organisation has so-far focused on establishing the basis for presenting a ‘prima facie’ case with the particular focus on proving the intent of genocide and a process towards filing a lawsuit at the ICJ.
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Understanding post-2013 US-India partnership: Human rights second to geopolitics

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 December 2019, 23:44 GMT]
“[W]hen I entered the Foreign Service, the Quad was the U.S., UK, France, and Germany. Today the Quad is something very different reflecting the new world realities that we confront,” said Alice G. Wells, the principal deputy assistant secretary at the US Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, delivering special remarks on 60-year diplomatic relations between the USA and India last week. “The formation of the Quad about 2.5 years ago, which consists of the U.S., India, Japan, and Australia and met for the first time at the Ministerial level on the margins of the UN General Assembly, is an important step forward in aligning like-minded powers behind the principle of a free and open Indo-Pacific, and just I think a few weeks ago India hosted a successful counter-terrorism tabletop exercise among Quad partners,” the US top-diplomat on South Asia observed.
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SLAF Chief attends US Air Force meet while Gota claims not taking sides in great power rivalry

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 December 2019, 22:59 GMT]
The Commander of the SL Air Force (SLAF) Air Marshal Dambure Liyanage Sumangala Dias has taken part in the Pacific Air Chiefs Symposium (PACS 19) at the invitation of Commander of the United States Air Force Pacific Command Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. The participation has taken place while his Commander-in-Chief, SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a US citizen was waging propaganda to the effect that the Indian Ocean must be kept as “a zone of peace free of any conflict”. The SLAF Commander was attending a series of panel discussions on regional security, domain awareness, multi-domain operation, interoperability and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief, according to the news reports from the US Air Force.
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Colombo wants ‘Sea of Lanka’ geopolitics to accompany Indian Ocean/Indo-Pacific outlook

[TamilNet, Friday, 13 December 2019, 23:12 GMT]
Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu was visiting Colombo meeting the newly elected SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his sibling, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the SL Prime Minister and former President on Friday. During his visit, the Japanese Foreign Minister was talking about strengthening bilateral trade, infrastructure-development and high-tech assistance to the island along with Japan’s (or Quad powers’) overarching geopolitical agenda known as the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP). SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, welcoming the Japanese offer was, however, more interested about collaborating with Japan to create an employment-oriented and technology-driven economy in the island while keeping the Indian Ocean “a zone of peace free of any conflict”. At the same time, Mr Gotabaya was insinuating a different “message” through some private media outlets to the Quad countries.
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Australian think tank seeks ‘selective focus’ on building ‘Sri Lanka MDA’

[TamilNet, Sunday, 08 December 2019, 18:14 GMT]
An Australian think tank, Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), established by the government in 2001 and partially funded by the country’s Department of Defence has brought out a geopolitical ‘special report’ of the Indo-Pacific Island States in the context of maritime security and major-power competition prevailing in the Indo-Pacific. The study, which is also assisted by Japan, the other key player in the Quad formation led by the USA, divides the island states into two groups, Pacific Island Countries (PICs) and Indian Ocean island states (IO island states). “Australia’s efforts should be focused on Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the central Indian Ocean,” is one of the key findings of the report. “In Sri Lanka, Australia should focus on helping to develop the national Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) system.”
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Correlating ‘optics’ of TNA is the need of the hour

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 December 2019, 23:19 GMT]
The global and regional powers engaged in their geopolitical access negotiations with the sitting regimes in Colombo would continue to advise the leaders of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to regard the Tamil national question as an internal affair of the ‘Sri Lankan’ state. The personalities at the helm of the TNA affairs have also succumbed to this advice, particularly after 2009. The Tamil civil society and the grassroots must address this ‘optical nerve problem’ of the TNA. The disease cannot be allowed to continue even after the Rajapaksa brothers coming to power in the South, commented Tamil activists for alternative politics in Jaffna. The Rajapaksa siblings have vowed to consolidate the unitary state, which is already illegitimate as far as the nation of Eezham Tamils is concerned, they said.
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Challenging 2006 EU ban on LTTE, next step of legal activism on principled grounds: Mendis

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 December 2019, 23:27 GMT]
Based on the legal victory obtained in 2018 in Switzerland, the Tamil diaspora should relinquish fear and challenge the initial 2006 EU ban on LTTE on moral and justice grounds, said exiled Sinhala activist Viraj Mendis, who addressed a packed audience in Oslo on 09 November. The activist, who has been championing the cause of Eezham Tamils for more than 35 years, announced a one-year intensive documentation-cum-legal project to challenge the EU ban. The announcement was made in Oslo, Norway, where Mr Mendis was taking part at the Norway-launch of the book, “Nanthik-kadal Peasuki'rathu” (Nanthik-kadal Speaks). The project has gained a moral boost on Tuesday when the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland announced that it rejected an appeal lodged by Switzerland's Federal Prosecutor's Office against the precedent-setting judgment of the Federal Criminal Court in June 2018.
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Collective message from Tamils on Heroes Day: Rajapaksas can’t kill Tamil Eelam dream

[TamilNet, Thursday, 28 November 2019, 07:59 GMT]
Thousands of people took part in Heroes Day amidst SL military intelligence trying to ‘discipline’ the students and the people from not attending the memorial event on Wednesday. The people were determined to proceed with the event despite showering heavy rains at the grounds where Tamil war heroes (Maaveerar) lie buried in the occupied Tamil Eelam. Self-mobilised grassroots organised the remembrance events. Alternative locations were chosen for the war cemeteries (thuyilum-illam) grounds, which the occupying SL military was continuing to use, in an uncivilised manner, as the grounds for their cantonments. Sinhala soldiers were seen snatching the photos from the parents who were on their way to the thuyilum-illam in Ampaa’rai. The SL Police also seized the loudspeaker and a vehicle used in the mobilisation for the commemoration of the Sea Tiger War Heroes at Munai in Point-Pedro, Jaffna.
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Demand Tokyo Co-chairs, India to bring international mediation between Tamils and GoSL

[TamilNet, Sunday, 24 November 2019, 19:59 GMT]
Unlike during the genocidal onslaught in 2009, the US and India are now more tightly intertwined in their foreign policy approach on the maritime affairs of the states in the Indian Ocean. There is a joint Indo-Pacific outlook, especially after the 2013 launch of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). There would be no different approaches or nuances between the two powers, as it was the case in the previous decade. The US and India, along with two other key partners in the region, Japan and Australia, would be acting en bloc. The Rajapaksa establishment is very well aware of this reality. It is time that Tamils muster their historic courage and articulate a joint demand for international mediation. It is also the time that the foreign actors who were pulling the wrong strings during the 2009 genocide and its aftermath now take account of their earlier practices.
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Former IFS diplomat advises New Delhi to embrace Rajapaksas trading off rights with interests

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 November 2019, 23:41 GMT]
“There is no way Rajapaksa will accept federalism in Sri Lanka. The Tamil community will have to come to terms with the grim implications of it and learn to live with what is on offer,” commented M K Bhadrakumar, a former Indian Foreign Service diplomat responding to a question from the Turkish Anadolu news agency on Thursday. Eezham Tamils were “dispossessed by Colombo and disowned by New Delhi,” he said advising New Delhi to trade-off Tamil rights-oriented concerns with the strategic interests of India. “The bottom line is that Gotabaya will be no less a strongman than Prime Minister Modi. It will be exceedingly foolish to adopt a prescriptive attitude toward Colombo. Any such attempt will meet with rebuff. Success lies in carrying the new president along,” the former envoy Bhadrakumar said.
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Indian FM visits Gotabaya to ensure Colombo’s conformity to US-India geopolitics in Indian Ocean

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 November 2019, 22:50 GMT]
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was quick to visit Colombo and meet the newly elected SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Tuesday evening. Jaishankar has been a key figure influencing the Indo-US geopolitical outlook in the recent times, and his unscheduled direct presence in Colombo inviting Mr Gotabaya to India at his earliest was nothing else than an indication that the USA is pulling strings. Informed diplomatic sources in Colombo said Gotabaya Rajapaksa was also well aware that India and the USA were tightly synchronised than ever before on defence and maritime affairs of the Indian Ocean.
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Reject engagement with genocidaire Gotabaya

[TamilNet, Monday, 18 November 2019, 23:10 GMT]
Newly sworn-in SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has denounced the existence of Eezham Tamils as a nation in the North and the East of the island. The wartime genocidaire Defense Secretary wants Tamils to become ‘Sri Lankans’ capitulating to the Sinhala Mahawansa doctrine, which possesses the requisite intent for Tamil genocide. The Tamils and their political leaders must unambiguously state now that there would be no engagement with genocidaire SL President and the SL State unless he openly and publicly declares Eezham Tamils as a nation entitled to the right of self-determination. The foreign state actors upholding the engagement paradigm are ultimately responsible for the continued crimes against Eezham Tamils in the island.
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Tamil message goes contrary to realpolitik of world powers: Premachandran

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 November 2019, 13:29 GMT]
Tamil people have cast their votes indicating their sharp opposition to génocidaire Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who is the SL president-elect. The voting pattern of Tamils must be interpreted as a message to the South as well as to the international community, said EPRLF Leader Suresh Premachandran in a comment to TamilNet on Sunday. However, the USA and India are preoccupied with the thought of how best they could engage with the new SL President, because they consider China as having established deeper inroads into the island through trade, infrastructure-development and the 99-year lease of Hambantota harbour in the South, he said. Suresh Premachandran was implying that the powers that embrace the new president must be regarded as accountable for continued injustices against the Eezham Tamils in the island.
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