New Delhi appeases Colombo as Eelam Tamil leaders fail to demand international mediation

[TamilNet, Friday, 29 November 2019, 18:45 GMT]
While Eelam Tamil political parties, particularly the TNA, are yet to place their demands to the geopolitical actors of an internationally mediated settlement to the national question in the island, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered a $450 million line of credit to Colombo, which includes $400 million for developing infrastructure and $50 million for anti-terrorism, media reports from India said on Friday. The move, announced during the new SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s maiden visit to India, is seen as a bid to outdo or reduce the influence of China in the strategically located island. In the meantime, New Delhi-based Hindustan Times reported that Gotabaya’s government wants to undo the previous regime’s move to lease the southern port of Hambantota to China. Rajapaksas were citing “national interest” as the reason, the paper said.
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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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University students, Shivaji brave SL restrictions on veneration of Tamil Eelam Heroes in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 November 2019, 10:46 GMT]
The Tamil student community forcibly opened the gate of the University of Jaffna and entered the memorial site for Tamil Eelam Heroes inside the main campus on Tamil Heroes Day braving the official ban against entering the University premises on Tamil Eelam Heroes Day. The mobilisation took place around 10:00 a.m. two hours ahead of the scheduled time. More than three hundred students entered the premises and paid tribute to the fallen Tamil Eelam Heroes at Maaveerar memorial and lit the morning flame. In the meantime, former NPC Councillor and ex-TNA parliamentarian M.K. Shivajilingam braved the harassment by the SL Army officers at the entrance to the Tamil Eelam Heroes Cemetery at Kodikaamam in Thenmaraadchi, Jaffna.
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Colombo attempts to officially block students from marking Heroes Day at Jaffna University

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 November 2019, 23:28 GMT]
The occupying unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has instructed the Competent Authority at the University of Jaffna to declare the premises of the University out of bounds to the student community on Tamil Eelam Heroes Day and the day after. Professor K Kandasamy has issued a letter to this effect on Tuesday. In the meantime, the student leaders of Jaffna University Student Union have been instructed not to stage any event inside the university premises on 26 and 27 November, also by the Competent Authority, Prof Kandasamy. However, the students have vowed to proceed with the remembrance event on Wednesday as planned.
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People mobilise in resolute to mark Tamil Eelam Heroes Day amidst Rajapaksas return

[TamilNet, Monday, 25 November 2019, 23:32 GMT]
The people of occupied Tamil Eelam in the North and East of the island, who face an uncertain future due to the return of Rajapaksa siblings as the rulers from the South, have mobilised to mark Tamil Eelam Heroes Day with unwavering resolute also this year. There were reports of occupying SL military and the police at Mu'l'li-vaaykkaal in Mullaith-theevu in North and at Champoor in Trincomalee in the East, issuing threats to the volunteers. However, various grassroots organisations along with Tamil national political leaders and parties have engaged in Sramadanam work clearing and decorating the grounds and vicinities of the Heroes cemeteries, which the occupying Sinhala military had razed to the grounds during the previous regime of Rajapaksas.
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US, Indian think-tanks call for deepening of Indo-Pacific ties ahead of 2+2 meetings

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 November 2019, 22:58 GMT]
China's strategic infrastructure financing, including of Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka, Gwadar Port in Pakistan, and Kyaukpyu in Myanmar as well as its economic cooperation, including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and investments in Nepal, Myanmar, Maldives and Sri Lanka are among the tools Beijing is using to shape geopolitics in the Indian Ocean region, argue two of the collaborating think tanks at Washington DC and New Delhi, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Delhi Policy Group (DPG). Enlarging US interest in the Indian Ocean Region, US recognising India's role in the region and the deepening of US-India strategic conversations and planning are the action-points proposed by both the think-tanks.
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Russian naval vessel visiting Hambantota coincides with return of Gotabaya Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 November 2019, 23:13 GMT]
The Sinhala Navy was enthusiastically arranging sporting and cultural events for the crew of Perekop, a naval training vessel of the Russian Baltic fleet, which docked at Hambantota port operated by China, a day after Gotabaya Rajapaksa was sworn in as the SL President. “India is likely to welcome this decision since it has been concerned over the use of the strategically located port by the Chinese Navy and has been desirous of Russia expanding its presence in the Indo-Pacific region to make it more inclusive,” observed Mumbai-based The Economic Times in a news report published on Friday.
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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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US ambassador-turned-consultant hints at capitalising on ‘shared interests’ with Gotabaya

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 20 November 2019, 23:04 GMT]
“The key question for the United States is now whether the two countries [Sri Lanka and the US] can reset their dialogue on the Indo-Pacific and regional peace and capitalize on the interests they share,” says Ambassador Teresita Schaffer, a retired career member of the U.S. Foreign Service and a former U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka (1992-1995). In an interview conducted for the blog of the Council on Foreign Relations, by Alyssa Ayres, one of her colleague at the Washington DC based consulting firm, McLarty Associates, Shaffer mentions one of the ‘interests’ shared by the US as “preventing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam from resuming their campaign”.
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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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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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High voter turn-out in North-East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 November 2019, 23:48 GMT]
The people in the North-East have voted in large numbers in the SL presidential elections held on Saturday. The Tamil voters have ignored the calls for boycott as they didn’t want to see the return of the war-time SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as the next president and opted to back Sajith Premadasa, the lesser evil of the two main candidates. The Chairman of the SL Election Commission, Mahinda Deshapriya, has described the polls as the most peaceful presidential election in the history of the island. However, war-displaced Tamil-speaking Muslims transported from Puththa’lam to cast their votes in Mannaar were attacked by the supporters of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.
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Forest officials from Ampaa'rai intervene to free land encroachers in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 November 2019, 17:00 GMT]
Sinhala officials of the SL Forest Department attached to the Ampaa'ari office seem to have released the Sinhala encroachers who were initially detained by the forest guards from Batticaloa on 05 November. The Sinhala officials from Ampaa'rai had taken the encroachers from the Tamil officials to avert legal action. There has been no legal against them in Ampaa'rai, and the encroachers are still seen engaging in various activities in Periya-maathava'nai and Mayilaththai-madu, particularly in Ea'raavoorpattu (Chengkaladi) division, Tamil dairy farmers who have been fighting against illegal encroachment.
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Shivaji manifesto demands IC make Colombo to provide autonomy to Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 November 2019, 23:48 GMT]
The Tamil people call upon the International Community (IC) to make the SL State grant autonomy to them in the merged North-East. If the SL State fails to offer Tamils their legitimate rights within the first one year of the new term of the incoming SL President, the IC and the UN should conduct a UN-monitored referendum to determine the political preference of the Tamil people. Furthermore, the IC and the UN should launch international investigations on the crimes committed in the island against the Tamil people, including the genocide, says M.K. Shivajilingam, the Tamil candidate contesting the presidential elections. The Tamil-speaking Muslim people and the Up-country Tamils are entitled to self-determination. They shall be given full autonomy to look after their affairs in their regions, the manifesto released in Trincomalee states.
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Shivajilingam responds to Sampanthan: no withdrawal without written assurance

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 November 2019, 09:13 GMT]
If the TNA Leader negotiates with Sajith Premadasa and secures a written assurance in which the SL presidential candidate commits to fulfil two specific demands, Tamil presidential candidate M.K. Shivajilingam was prepared to withdraw from the race for SL presidential candidate. However, such a move has not taken place, said Mr Shivajilingam in a comment to TamilNet on Wednesday. He was responding to Mr Sampanthan’s public appeal to Mr Shivajilingam to step down from the presidential race without any preconditions.
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Concentrate on nation-building beyond choiceless electoral politics of South: TCSF

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 November 2019, 22:09 GMT]
The post-war electoral politics in the South of the island has narrowed down the options available to the Tamils in the presidential elections to the survivalist choice between the lesser of two evils, as witnessed in 2010, 2015 and also this time, says Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) in a statement issued on Tuesday. It is outright stupidity to believe that one should choose the long-term danger than the immediate one or vice versa. The Tamil people should have this in mind while voting, the TCSF statement said.
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Independent Tamil committee appointed by TPC backs Tamil candidate in principle

[TamilNet, Monday, 11 November 2019, 23:37 GMT]
The ideal option available to the Tamil people was to cast their votes for a Tamil candidate, who is acceptable to most of the Tamil parties, said the independent committee appointed by the Tamil Peoples’ Council in a written statement issued in Tamil on Monday. The committee was not pointing at anyone by name since it had failed to field a common candidate acceptable to most of the Tamil parties. However, it was indirectly pointing at Mr Shivajilingam, who has the backing of at least two of the Tamil parties and alliances.
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Gotabhaya's campaigners supply money and alcohol to young voters in Vanni

[TamilNet, Sunday, 10 November 2019, 18:16 GMT]
The campaigners of SL Presidential candidate Gotabhaya Rajapaksa were locking the uprooted Tamil youth from Keappaa-pulavu in Mullaiththeevu supplying 3,000 to 5,000 rupees per person and five Ceylon Arrack (alcoholic drink) bottles per person if they were prepared to attend the propaganda meeting on Sunday. Sinhala youth were also brought from Ma'nal-aa'ru (Weli-Oya) to Mullaith-theevu town with the same offer.
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Jaffna TELO branch contradicts party stance on SL presidential election

[TamilNet, Saturday, 09 November 2019, 20:02 GMT]
The Secretary and Deputy Secretary of the Jaffna branch of Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), a constituent party of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), has issued a statement against the decision made by its hierarchy on supporting Sajith Premadasa in the forthcoming SL Presidential election. The party should not back a candidate who fails to genuinely honour the thirteen-point demands put forward by the six major Tamil parties, the Jaffna branch of the TELO said in a media statement issued after discussing the matter at a meeting held in Jaffna on Saturday.
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Student leaders fail to pinpoint ITAK, blame all five Tamil parties for ‘approach failure’

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 November 2019, 22:39 GMT]
The leaders of the Jaffna University Student Union (JUSU) have passed the blame of the failure to stipulate the choices to be made if and when the actors in the South fail to meet the thirteen-point terms in the document articulated by the mainstream Tamil political parties last month. The document articulated by six parties and agreed in full by five of them in the signature was about vetting the mainstream candidates in the forthcoming SL presidential elections. The SLPP candidate Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has stated unitary state as the solution and wants to consolidate it further. The NDF candidate Sajith Premadasa has rejected Tamils Right of Self-Determination and their distinct sovereignty in principle through stating ‘undivided and indivisible Sri Lanka’ in his manifesto.
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SL Police extorts money from Kaaththaankudi Muslim traders

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 November 2019, 19:45 GMT]
Sinhala police officers posing as Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) investigators from a special unit in Colombo engage in widespread extortion of money from the Muslim business owners in Kaaththaan-kudi. The extortion has increased in recent days, and the business owners are reluctant to lodge complaints at the police station in Kaaththaan-kudi even though Tamil-speaking Muslim police officers are manning the station.
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SL military warns Tamils against protesting land-grab along Pooneryn sandbar

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 05 November 2019, 18:02 GMT]
The commander of the occupying Sinhala military stationed in Ki'linochchi, Major General GV Ravipriya, has threatened the people of Kauthaari-munai and the nearby villages along Ma'n'nith-thalai sandbar of Poonakari (Pooneryn) not to object SL Governor's plan of alienating lands to a planned hotel by an Australia-based Tamil trader collaborating with the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka. The SL military is fully backing the land grab, which is promoted by the SL Governor to North Suren Raghavan.
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Next ploy of Rajapaksa Establishment: Sinhala-Buddhicisation of Tamil youth in North

[TamilNet, Monday, 04 November 2019, 23:13 GMT]
Namal Rajapaksa, the son of former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has managed to deceptively invite 600 Tamil girls promising government employment opportunities through a business operative, SL Ramachandran, a Tamil from Vara'ni in Jaffna. Sinhala-Buddhist extremist monk cum politician of Jathika Hela Urumaya, Athuraliye Rathana thero, was accompanying Mr Rajapaksa to the “introductory show of Sinhala education” where Tamil boys were made to dance wearing Sinhala costumes. The girls, who took part in the event said they were promised government jobs if they showed up at the event held on Monday at Ilangkai Veanthan Art's College at Neeraaviyadi, a suburb of Jaffna.
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ITAK betrays Tamils once again: Suresh Premachandran

[TamilNet, Sunday, 03 November 2019, 21:25 GMT]
The leading Sinhala presidential candidates have categorically rejected the thirteen-point joint demands, which were articulated by the main six Tamil parties and unanimously accepted in whole by five of them, including the ITAK. Furthermore, it is evident to anyone that the UNP is not going to deliver the constitutional changes. What happened to the constitutional discourse of the same regime during the past four and a half years? The proposals were dumped into the dustbin. How could then the ITAK, which is also a signatory to the joint declaration make a unilateral decision of extending support to Sajith Premadasa, asked EPRLF Leader Suresh Premachandran.
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SL Police detains Tamil trustees of Saiva temple in Vavuniyaa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 02 November 2019, 21:03 GMT]
The Archaeological Department of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has moved the SL Police to act against the chairman and the secretary of the board of trustees of Kaaddu-vinayakar temple at Maa'likai in Oamanthai, Vavuniyaa after they started to clear the bushes of their village deity. Recently, the resettled Tamils of the village got together in a Shramadana campaign at the war-destroyed ancient temple in the former no-man zone.
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Eezham Tamil fishers detained by Indian Coast Guard return home

[TamilNet, Friday, 01 November 2019, 22:42 GMT]
Eighteen Tamil fishermen from Jaffna who were detained by the Indian coastguard that trespassed into the waters off Jaffna on 03 October 2019 reached Colombo airport on Wednesday morning after 27 days of detention in Tamil Nadu. The Indian Coastguard entered the territorial waters off Jaffna, near Ezhuvai-theevu, and towed their vessel for five nautical miles inside the Indian border before getting onboard, the fishermen who reached Jaffna on Thursday said. The investigators from the SL Defence Ministry were harassing the fishers for almost six hours at Colombo airport, Annalingam Annarasa, the secretary of Jaffna District Fisheries Federation who had gone to Colombo to receive the returning fishers said.
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