Corona pandemic underscores non-state preparedness on health and development

Island-wide Corona infection estimated at 550 with spread risk to 19,000 persons

With 101 medically confirmed cases so far, the number of actual Corona-infected persons circulating within the peoples in the island could be around 550, according to a situation report issued by the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) on Wednesday. The Colombo-based association estimated the contact-risk by these possible 550 patients at 19,000 individuals at present. It identified districts of Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, and Puththa'lam as high-risk areas. If the curfew is lifted, social distancing would be considerably affected, the report said proposing to extend the lockdown to 07 April. Full story >>

UNHRC urged to adopt multitrack investigations, including SL State responsibility for genocide

Malaysian human rights activist lawyer Maha Ramakrishnan who addressed the UNHRC earlier this month told TamilNet this week that the UN human rights mechanisms must consider a multi-track approach on the SL State crimes. Forwarding the statements she delivered under Agenda Item 4 and prepared for Item 5, she said the UN needs to review its previous reports, resolutions, actions and enact stronger steps. Both the former “consensus” regime and present “confrontational” regime have demonstrated their lack of political will. The UNHRC resolutions failed as it didn’t foster conditions for the political will to emerge on the part of the SL State. Passing a strong resolution under Agenda Item 4 or creating an exclusive Agenda Item for “Sri Lanka” crimes, the UN must also address SL State responsibility on Tamil genocide as well as individual criminal liability, she said. Full story >>

India, France carry out joint surveillance mission from Reunion Island

New Delhi conducted its first joint naval patrol with France from the Reunion Island last month, the Hindu reported on Saturday. The Indian Navy was deploying a Boeing P-8 Poseidon to carry out surveillance missions with French Navy personnel on board, the report said. According to Zinfos974, a Reunion news website, French Air Force and Navy took part in the five-day-long surveillance mission with three flights of seven hours each. The engagement was a Maritime Domain Awareness operation, and intended to combat “terrorism and maritime piracy,” the website reported on 05 March. The military aircraft returned to India on 03 March. Both the news reports described France as a strategic partner of India. Full story >>

Bay of Bengal study notes development disparity between North-East and South

All the successive regimes in Colombo have focused on improving the economy of the Sinhala South after the onslaught on Eezham Tamils in 2009. The SL State, which deploys ‘development’ coupled with geopolitics to sustain the protracted genocide against the nation of Eezham Tamils, has a particular focus on shipping when compared to other maritime industry sectors such as fisheries, tourism and energy, reveals a study conducted by One Earth Future (OEF), a non-profit foundation based in the USA. “Sri Lanka” stands out as an emerging global hub and a “regional leader” in shipping, the OEF’s Stable Seas program observes in the study published on Monday. Although the report fails to identify SL State’s structural discrimination against the stateless Eezham Tamils, it doesn’t miss to note the disparity on Human Development Index (HDI) between the coastal districts of North-East and the South. Full story >>

Gotabaya appoints Silva as head of SL operation centre to prevent corona outbreak

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. Full story >>

Phil Miller’s work reveals British role in dividing Tamils and Muslims in East: Dr Malathy

The British mercenary outfit Keenie Meenie Services (KMS), made up mostly of ex-SAS personnel, and serving the ‘anglophile’ SL President, the late Richard Junius Jayewardene by secretly training the Sinhala Special Task Force (STF) commandos against the armed struggle of Eezham Tamils back in the 1980s. The STF advised by the KMS on divide-and-rule and use of religion, recruited Tamil-speaking Muslims to commit massacres. All of this was done with full awareness of the British government, which too was worried about the solidarity between the Tamils and the Muslims, writes New Zealand based Dr N.Malathy in her book review on the recent book by UK-based Phil Miller. “Keenie Meenie: The British Mercenaries Who Got Away With War Crimes,” is making this vital revelation, writes the Tamil diaspora survivor of SL State’s 2009 genocidal onslaught on Eezham Tamils in Vanni. Full story >>

Australia upgrades air defence boosting strategic military ties with US to deter China in Indo-Pacific

Australia, one of the Quad partners in the emerging Indo-Pacific military alliance of the US, has recently decided to spend A$1.1 billion to upgrade the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Base at Tindal, which is located in its Northern Territory. When the upgrade is complete, the RAAF Tindal will be the “most potent military base south of Guam,” according to Emeritus Professor Paul Dibb AM, who is the director of Strategic and Defence Studies Centre of the Australian National University. The US Air Force would be able to operate its nuclear-capable B-52 strategic bombers from the expanded airfield in the future. In the meantime, the US has approved the sales of up to 200 Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASMs) of the type AGM-158C at the estimated cost of A$1.47 billion. Full story >>

2ND LEAD (Update)

SL State-funded Buddhist vihara declared opened in Ki'linochchi campus of Jaffna University

Occupying Colombo launched its plan to construct a grand Buddhist vihara inside the Ki'linochchi campus of Jaffna University in 2018. Following the controversial move, the administration of Jaffna University allocated lands for the construction of Christian, Saiva, Islamic and Buddhist temples. However, only the Buddhist temple was awarded large sums of money from the SL State as well as by the extremist Buddhist organisations in the South. The construction launched during the previous regime was accelerated within the last three months. On Saturday, the Buddhist temple, named Sarasavi Viharaya, was declared opened amid a grand ceremony by the Sinhala students as well as the Sinhala Buddhist nationalist groups from the South. Full story >>


2ND LEAD (Adds full text of the appeal)

International Women's Day: Families of missing condemn UN failure to deliver international justice

The UN Human Rights Council based discourse has failed to deliver justice to the families of Eezham Tamils, who were subjected to enforced disappearance at the hands of the occupying Sinhala military, particularly during the 2009 genocidal onslaught. The victims have thoroughly rejected the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) as a farce. However, the Geneva-based UN rights institutions continue to uphold the deceptive OMP as a positive achievement, despite repeated appeals from the organisations representing the kith and kin of the persons subjected to enforced disappearances. The Geneva-based system was closing its eyes to the truth, and turning deaf ears to the three-year-long protests, the protesting mothers complained on International Women's Day. Hundreds of people gathered to express solidarity with the protesting mothers at Mullaith-theevu on Sunday. Full story >>

Colombo brings back EPDP terror assassins from exile

The military intelligence of occupying Colombo has allowed SL Cabinet Minister Douglas Devananda to bring back exiled assassins of his war-time paramilitary outfit EPDP back to the island and into Jaffna in the recent days, informed sources in Colombo said. Some of the EPDP terror operatives deployed by the SL intelligence establishment to commit targeted assassinations and abductions to destabilise the 2002 ceasefire towards the run-up to the genocidal onslaught in 2009 exiled during the previous Rajapaksa regime. These are the ones, now returning to Jaffna, the sources said. Full story >>

Increasing pattern of Sinhala officials controlling civil affairs in North-East: Wigneswaran, Mavai

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. Full story >>

2ND LEAD (UPDATE)

New Delhi lashes out against Geneva intervention on discriminatory CAA

In an unprecedented move, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is set to prompt the Supreme Court of India to determine the compatibility of India’s discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA) with the country’s international human rights obligations. On Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry of Narendra Modi’s government lashed out at the OHCHR stating that “no foreign party” has any “locus standi” on issues pertaining to India’s sovereignty and said it was an “internal affair” of India. The OHCHR move comes after pro-BJP Hindutva mobs launched violent attacks against Muslims, triggering sectarian violence that claimed dozens of lives and set scores of homes, shops and vehicles aflame at the Indian capital of New Delhi. Full story >>

Colombo adopts Nepal’s approach on US MCC negotiations

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.” Full story >>