Gotabaya’s 19 May speech, outcome of defeatism, irresponsibility, say Colombo-based Tamils

Sinhala monks relaunch hate campaign against Poththuvil Muslims

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. Full story >>

US-India partnership reached unprecedented levels, says outgoing US top diplomat

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. Full story >>

TYO-UK pushes back on British Foreign Secretary's May 18 tweet

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. Full story >>

IBC's sister-media Gagana used to threaten Tamil villagers in Trinco on 18 May Remembrance

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.” Full story >>

Occupying SL military desecrates Remembrance Day candles, harasses Tamil politicians

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. Full story >>

Break paradigm that regards Tamils as victims to achieve equitable solution: Balakumaran in 2004

From the colonial British Lord Soulbury to Norwegian Peace Envoy Solheim, all external interlocutors intended to render Tamils’ demand below the point of optimal compromise. Soulbury went to the extent of humiliating the then Tamil leader GG Ponnambalam in his attempt to negate the demands of Tamils. He later regretted. Now, Solheim wants to do the same, i.e., tell Tamils to drop their arms. But, he is unable to say it face-to-face because LTTE Leader has demonstrated the balance of power for the first time in the evolutional history of Tamil leaders. However, the world powers still want to weaken the Tamil side and strengthen the SL State, said KV Balakumaran, a senior leader in the armed struggle of Tamils, back in 2004. Tamils cannot achieve anything with a “victim” mindset, he said in a lengthy consultative session to TamilNet in September 2004. Full story >>

2ND LEAD (Update)

SL Army fires at Tamil youth in Point Pedro, Jaffna

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. Full story >>

Remembrance of Tamil Genocide and Resistance commences in occupied Tamil Eelam

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. Full story >>

Outspoken CCP called back from North, former commander appointed as top health bureaucrat

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. Full story >>

Occupying Sinhala soldiers mete out revenge assaults against Tamil families in Jaffna, Vanni

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. Full story >>

SL State continues mega ‘development’ crime in Mannaar amidst COVID-19 curfew

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. Full story >>

COVID-19 testing at Jaffna University temporarily suspended

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. Full story >>

US expert mulls idea of expanding US Indo-Pacific security alliance into Quad Plus

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. Full story >>