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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Jaffna villagers agitate against exploitative sand traders from South

[TamilNet, Saturday, 14 December 2019, 22:47 GMT]
In what was described as the first-initiated protest against the SL authorities in Jaffna after Gotabaya Rajapaksa assuming office as the SL President in the South, the Tamil residents from Valikaamam East blocked the A9 Highway for more than one hour at Puthukkaadu Junction on Saturday. The protesters were agitating against the exploitative sand mining escalating without any control in Jaffna. They demanded the SL Police to block the southern sand traders who were dispatching their tipper vehicles to transport the excavated sands from Jaffna. The SL Police had to promise the protesters of setting up a new point to control the sand transport to end the protest.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Rajapaksas demonstrate Mafia tactics of control through Devananda in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 December 2019, 22:59 GMT]
The newly installed SL Minister of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources, Douglas Devananda has let the hell break loose in Jaffna at three different hotspots, where he has given green signal to illegal sand miners to engage in sand mining. During the previous Rajapaksa regime, Maheswary Foundation, a business outfit run by Mr Devananda’s paramilitary group was exploiting the sand excavation in typical Mafia fashion. However, the domination was contained to some extent after the 2015 regime change, but the exploitation continued in low-scale by new actors, predominantly Sinhala traders from South, entering the scene. With his cabinet-rank being reinstated, the Jaffna-based former Tamil paramilitary operative of the Sinhala military and leader of the paramilitary-turned-political party EPDP, has let loose all actors to exploit illegal sand mining without any constraint, allegedly for one week.
Full story >>

SL TID inspections cripple NGO consortium in Ampaa'rai

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 11 December 2019, 22:13 GMT]
The normal operations of the office of the Consortium of Non-Governmental Organisations in Ampaa'rai district has been thoroughly disrupted by the frequent-inspections and questionings conducted by the ‘Terrorist’ Investigation Division (TID) of occupying Colombo, the representatives of the member organisations in the district told TamilNet on Wednesday. The TID was questioning particularly about the activities or involvement of personalities of three NGOs, the Center for Human Rights and Development, Viluthu Centre for Human Resource Development and the Centre for Policy Alternatives. The TID harassment was continuing even after the officials of the consortium thoroughly established the fact that the three NGOs were not affiliated to them, the activists said.
Full story >>

SL State Intelligence harasses another Tamil activist in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 December 2019, 22:43 GMT]
The SL State Intelligence Service (SIS), formerly known as the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), has been harassing 35-year-old Komahan Murugiah from Punnaalai, Jaffna after he denounced a fake news report regarding the Tamil Political Prisoners (TPPs). A Jaffna-based Tamil Television, Dan TV, alleged of orchestrating false propaganda in favour of SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had recently claimed that seven TPPs from Anuradhapura prison had been silently released. On Friday, Mr Komahan openly rejected the fake news and said all the six TPPs detained in Anuradhapura prison were still languishing there. After Komahan exposed the false propaganda, SL SIS officers started to harass him posing questions, rights activists in Jaffna told TamilNet on Tuesday.
Full story >>

Veteran political analyst faces surveillance harassment in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 December 2019, 22:11 GMT]
Unknown persons who entered the residence of Jaffna-based Political Analyst and Senior Lawyer S.A. Jothilingam have ransacked the place while the 64-year-old activist was away on Sunday. The ransackers have gone through his possessions in all the rooms and taken away two smartphones used by the activist. The front door and the doors of the cupboards inside the rooms have been smashed. The incident was not an ordinary theft as the intruders didn't steal the money or other valuable items. Furthermore, the episode unfolded after two other suspicious events on Friday, according to the activist and his friends who went to help him on Friday night and Sunday.
Full story >>

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.”
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

US think-tank lists India's strategic assets in Indian Ocean Region

[TamilNet, Friday, 06 December 2019, 13:47 GMT]
New Delhi is “heavily, albeit quietly,” expanding its naval and air power across the Indian Ocean, a study by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) of the Washington DC based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) revealed on Friday with an interactive map that shows the various locations across the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) where India has recently made investments and expanded presence and access. The study lists four kinds of assets: Offshore military bases, coastal radar networks, access to foreign military facilities such as the French naval base on Réunion Island and strategic commercial ports as the deep-water East Container Terminal in Colombo, a joint venture by Japan and India. “From US perspective, this is all good news,” comments CSIS AMTI Director Gregory B. Poling in a video introduction of the study.
Full story >>

India's former nuclear commander proposes tolerance limits for hot exchange with China

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 December 2019, 23:25 GMT]
A challenging China in the maritime domain [of India] cannot be allowed to pass without a strategic riposte and India would have to mark its ‘red lines’ in clear terms to China, write Vice Admiral (retd) Vijay Shankar, a former Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of India's Strategic Forces Command (SFC) and C-in-C of the Andaman and Nicobar Command in the past. The retired 70-year-old Vice Admiral has posted a piece in his blog suggesting four ‘red lines’. One of them is any Chinese attempt to offer military support to any future internal war against the Indian State. Another red-line is China establishing aggressive deployments capable of disrupting Indian energy and resource traffic.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

Gotabaya seems to have bought 5 years from India to wage ‘development’ genocide in North-East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 December 2019, 23:46 GMT]
Genocidaire Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the newly elected SL president has refused to implement the pending devolution powers such as police and land powers to the provincial councils in the North and East. “[Y]ou can’t do anything against the wishes and feeling of the majority community,” he told The Hindu during his stay in India. “Look, the 13th Amendment is part of the constitution and is functional, except for some areas like control of police powers, which we can’t implement. I am willing to discuss alternatives to that,” he told the paper. Only a day before the interview appeared, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed confidence at the presence of Mr Rajapaksa that the latter would be implementing the 13th Amendment to the SL Constitution.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>

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.
Full story >>