China steps up investment on Sinhala propaganda assets in South

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 December 2018, 20:07 GMT]
The Chongqing Normal University (CNU) in China is promoting 20 annual scholarships for carrier journalists through the organisation known as Sri Lanka China Journalist’s Forum (SLCJF). A Memorandum of Understanding signed between the CNU President Prof. Zhou Zeyang, and Nalin Aponso of the SLCJF outfit mentions the Belt and Road Initiative as the main platform for the scholarships. Mr Aponso is also the Public Relations Manager of the ‘Sri Lanka’ Port Authority. The MoU was signed at the presence of Chinese Embassy officials and the representatives of the Confucius Institute at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Kelaniya at an event held in Colombo on 12 December. The SLCJF, established in 2001 has been promoting China with Sinhala language periodical ‘Mahajana Cheenaya’ (People’s China), several exhibitions for educational institutions in China and arranging trips to China.
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Sirisena showcases military-to-military relationship with China

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 December 2018, 11:33 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena on Saturday gave prominence to a photo session with Chinese military officers and Ambassador Cheng Xueyuan staging a grand opening ceremony to a Chinese military constructed auditorium at Diyatalawa military academy of genocidal Sri Lanka. The publicity stunt was aimed at passing a message to India and the West, observers in Colombo said. Mr Sirisena was using the opportunity in an attempt to balance out his setback in the constitutional with the military relation stunt with China, the observers said adding that Sirisena, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the SL military, was also passing a warning signal to the USA and India. Similarly, Chinese were giving a message by appointing Major General Shen Jun to lead their military delegation to the event, a diplomatic source in Colombo told TamilNet.
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Protest spoils SL Police move to protect Sinhala sand-scooper causing fatal accident in East

[TamilNet, Sunday, 16 December 2018, 07:02 GMT]
A 29-year-old young Tamil-speaking Muslim man, identified as Mahrub Mahzoom succumbed to fatal injuries caused by a speeding vehicle, which was transporting sand through Batticaloa Moothoor road on Friday. The driver of the tipper vehicle, a Sinhalese, went into a police post and was trying to escape legal action. The Tamil-speaking Muslims launched a spontaneous protest demanding immediate legal action against the driver of the sand scoop vehicle. The people blocked roads and assaulted a police post at Periya-paalam, and the Sinhala policemen were forced to fire shots into the air to control the tense situation.
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Sinhala officials intimidate Tamil, Muslim land-owners at Kuchchave'li in Trincomalee

[TamilNet, Saturday, 15 December 2018, 13:16 GMT]
The Eastern Provincial Deputy Land Commissioner has demanded 17 Tamil and Muslim landowners at the agricultural village of Vaazhai-oottu to share their lands with Sinhalese and has claimed that the Tamil-speaking people have seized the properties of Sinhala land-owners. A similar claim was made five years ago, and the case was resolved at the courts in favour of the Tamil land-owners. However, the land officials are now exerting political pressure, the Tamil farmers said.
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SL military threatens to re-introduce discriminatory pass system in Batticaloa North

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 December 2018, 22:09 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military is trying to re-introduce the discriminatory pass system which it deployed against the dairy farmers in the interior villages of Batticaloa district. The move is aimed at colonising the area with Sinhala settlers, and the SL military wants to chase away the Tamil farmers and the cattle herders through various harassments. The SL Army stationed at Tharavai military base has started to harass the Tamil cattle owners this week and instructed the cattle herders to register the details of cattle owners at their camp. Tharavai is located 40 km northwest of Batticaloa city.
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Ex-Land Commissioner observes systematic ethnic discrimination in issuing land documents in East

[TamilNet, Thursday, 13 December 2018, 22:42 GMT]
The SL Government in Colombo has been issuing circulars instructing the provincial land authorities to release land documents to displaced and uprooted war-affected people. Such circulars were attempting to document ‘adherence’ to the recommendations of the so-called ‘Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’. These circulars were also intended to convince the UN Human Rights Council and the international community that the SL State was implementing reconciliatory measures without discrimination. However, the Tamil people in the Eastern Province have been systematically and ethnically discriminated in the delivery of land documents even after the issuance of specific circulars, former Land Commissioner of Eastern Province Kathirgamathamby Kurunathan told TamilNet this week.
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SL military erects giant Buddha statue at controversial heritage site in Mullaiththeevu

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 12 December 2018, 21:45 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military in Mullaith-theevu installed a small Buddha statue, which was covered with glass at the disputed heritage site of Neeraaviyadi-eattam in Chemmalai in November. The SL military has now hurriedly replaced it with a huge Buddha statue disregarding the interim order and the protests of Tamil residents. The move comes after a delegation from the SL Archaeology Department in Colombo visited the SL military prompting it to accomplish the mission, civil sources in Mullaiththeevu District Secretariat told TamilNet. An extremist Buddhist monk, Kolamba Medhalankara Thera, staying with the SL Army's 593rd Brigade at Naayaa'ru is operating with the thinking that once the giant statue has been successfully erected, Tamil protests, as well as the interim orders, would lose their impact as the SL Constitution accords ‘foremost place to Buddhism’, the sources further said.
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SL military wants Cooray to liaise with Tamil diaspora industrialists from islets off Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 11 December 2018, 22:31 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala Navy and its intelligence wing have drawn a plan to recruit and deceive the business elite among the Tamils in the Northern Province, particularly the Tamil diaspora industrialists who hail from the islets off Jaffna, with the propaganda of ‘development’, informed sources at Ooraath-thu'rai (Kayts) told TamilNet this week. Under the pretext of facilitating infrastructure investment from the Tamil diaspora, the SL Navy wants to maintain its hold and open up the islets for more Sinhala tourists from the South with a large-scale trade and cultural Sinhalicisaiton of the islands. As part of this military conceived programme, the SL Governor is actively engaged in collecting details of Tamil diaspora industrialists and business owners, who are exiled in the West from the islets, the sources further said.
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HR Day protests in North-East met with violence, SL Police displays hostility

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 December 2018, 23:08 GMT]
Four Tamil protesters were admitted to Trincomalee hospital as unknown masked men assaulted the Tamils from Moothoor East, who rallied in front of the Trincomalee Bus stand Monday morning for a peaceful protest in connection with International Human Rights Day. The families of the enforced disappeared, and the villagers from Padu-kaadu and Muthalai-madu, whose lands have been seized by the occupying SL military, were staging the protest. In the meantime, the SL Police at Chunnaakam in Jaffna threatened the Tamil villagers of Uduvil who protested in front of the DS office on Monday urging it to not hand over a private property, which the police wants to seize for its use. Later, on Monday night, a petrol bomb was thrown at the property. The people suspect that the SL police was behind the attack, in an apparent threat to force the owners of a fitness centre to vacate the lands.
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Monks incite SL paramilitary to Sinhalicise Tamil heritage site in Trincomalee North

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 December 2018, 23:16 GMT]
An extremist section of the Sinhala-Buddhist Theravada monks establishment, which has been trying for more almost ten years to claim the ancient Tamil village of Thennai-maravadi as a heritage and archaeology site of Sinhala Buddhism, abandoned their attempt to erect a Buddhist temple at the lands of the Tamil village deity of Kanthasaami. However, the monks left behind noticeboards claiming the Saiva (Hindu) temple lands, where they conducted the excavations, as coming under the purview of the SL Department of Archaeology. Recently, on 30th November, Sinhala paramilitary personnel of the so-called ‘Civil Defence Force’ have put up foundations for a building inside the demarcated lands. If the seized properties of the Hindu temple come under the SL Archaeology department, how could the CDF personnel start constructing structures inside the grounds, the resettled Tamils questioned.
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Occupying Colombo reintroduces war-time harassments in North-East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 December 2018, 22:19 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military and the SL police, tightly coordinated by the unitary state defence establishment in Colombo, have deployed armed patrols and started to harass former LTTE members across the eight districts of the North and East citing the recent slaying of two police constables in Batticaloa. Widespread harassments, as those prevailed during the war-time in Tamil areas, are again reported from Ampaa'rai to the south of Batticaloa to Mannaar in the west of the Northern province. The SL military in Jaffna has deployed much-dreaded commando field-bike units with soldiers covering faces with black masks to patrol the streets in the peninsula. In the meantime, ex-LTTE members in Vanni are under heavy pressure to organise and take part in proxy demonstrations condemning the attacks to create a public impression that the attack was a politically motivated one.
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Washington set to downgrade ‘human rights politics’ to association level in Indo-Pacific

[TamilNet, Friday, 07 December 2018, 19:26 GMT]
A new US Senate bill named as “Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018” (ARIA) has been passed with an amendment by unanimous consent on 04 December 2018. The Trump Administration that has fully withdrawn from the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva will be downscaling the scope of its human rights agenda er to a regional intergovernmental association level (ASEAN) if ARIA becomes a law. Republican Senator Cory Gardner from Colorado, who proposed the bill in April has urged the US House of Representatives to quickly send the legislation to the desk of President Donald Trump for him to sign it into law.
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Skeletal remains with shackled legs exhumed in Mannaar mass grave

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 December 2018, 23:31 GMT]
Skeletal remains of legs belonging to two different victims were found locked together into a single iron shackle at Mannaar mass grave on Thursday, eyewitnesses in Mannaar told TamilNet. The excavation continued amidst rains for the 112th day and bone remains of 266 different victims, believed to be slain by the SL military during the times of war, have been discovered so far, and 260 of these have been exhumed and boxed for forensic investigations. The legal activists witnessing the excavation fear that Colombo and its justice system would never subject the remains to forensic analyses with an independent international third party. A female ring was also discovered this week at the mass grave site, which is located at the premises of Cooperative Wholesale Establishment (Sathosa) at the entrance to Mannaar city. Since 1990, and until recently, the premises was under SL military control.
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Colombo withdrew Wigneswaran's security after his Remembrance Day statement

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 December 2018, 23:16 GMT]
Occupying Colombo's Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara instructed his Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in Jaffna W.F.U. Fernando to immediately withdraw the personal security provided to the former Tamil Chief Minister Justice C.V. Wigneswaran when Fernando reported to the IGP that Wigneswaran had issued a statement supporting the commemoration of Tamil liberation fighters. His statement was released on 26 November, a day before Tamil Heroes Day and the occupying Colombo withdrew his security on 28 November. A Tamil-speaking source with close links to the SL Defence Establishment in Colombo revealed the details on condition of anonymity. The IGP had also told the Jaffna DIG to instruct the two police personnel who were with Justice Wigneswaran in Colombo to report to a police station in Colombo with immediate effect, the source further said.
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SL State becomes prime reference for ‘debt trap diplomacy’ of China in US rhetorics

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 December 2018, 19:03 GMT]
The unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has become the de-facto reference case for Chinese debt-trap diplomacy, which is being increasingly referred in the US political, military and financial discussions. USINDOPACOM Commander Admiral Philip S. Davidson made a reference to ‘Sri Lanka’ when he faced a question on what he found as the most problematic with the Belt and Road initiative on 30 November. In the meantime, Roland de Marcellus, the acting deputy assistant secretary for international finance and development within the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, testifying at a US Senate subcommittee hearing on “multilateral economic institutions in foreign policy,” on 27 November said ‘Sri Lanka’ had become “a campaign issue in many elections around the world where opposition groups are criticizing the volume of Chinese lending and the terms and all of the other drawbacks”.
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USA, China agree on 90-day ceasefire on trade war, India to reaffirm US defence ties

[TamilNet, Sunday, 02 December 2018, 14:45 GMT]
Unlike the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit that ended without a final statement amidst US-China disagreements in Papua New Guinea two weeks ago, the summit of 20 powerful economies of the world (G20) has concluded in Argentina with consensus among the capitalist actors resolving to “strengthening the global financial safety net with a strong, quota-based, and adequately resourced IMF at its centre.” The G20 has also resolved to reform the World Trade Organisation, which has been viewed by US President Donald Trump as something designed by the rest of the world to screw the USA. While the G20 vowed to “improve a rules-based international order,” Mr Trump has agreed with Chinese President Xi Jinping to begin negotiations on structural changes to resolve longstanding trade disputes within the next 90 days, which is seen as a ceasefire on trade war between China and the USA.
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Occupying Colombo intentionally targets ex-LTTE members for murder of SL policemen

[TamilNet, Saturday, 01 December 2018, 14:17 GMT]
The investigating squad of SL Police that had come from Colombo to investigate the killings of two police constables on Friday has interrogated at least seven former LTTE members and one of them involved in organising Tamil Heroes Day Remembrance at Thaa'ndiyadi on November 27 has been detained, informed sources in Batticaloa said. The interrogators were mostly investigating how Heroes Day was organised braving SL Police harassment at Thaa'ndiyadi Heroes Cemetery, which comes under the supervision area of the SL Police at Vavu'natheevu. The investigating police squad is particular in interrogating the organisors of the memorial event at Thaa'ndiyadi Heroes Cemetery. The investigating squad has also deployed hundreds of agents clad in civil clothes in Vavu'na-theevu area. The SL policemen have also assaulted four onlookers on Friday.
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Tamil, Sinhala policemen slain in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Friday, 30 November 2018, 10:31 GMT]
Unknown attackers have killed two SL policemen, a Tamil and a Sinhalese, who were manning a check post near Valai-i'ravu bridge, 5 km south-west of Batticaloa city in the early hours of Friday. 23-year-old Ganesh Dinesh, a Tamil policeman from Periya-neelaava'nai in Ampaa'rai was found shot and killed and bound to his chair outside the check-post. 34-year-old W N L Prasanna from Udugama in Galle was found dead at his bed inside the post with cut injuries to his throat. Residents said the killings could be related to a dispute between the police and a criminal gang operating with its backing. However, Colombo media was quick to blame it on Rajapaksa-aligned ex-paramilitary V. Muralitharan alias Karuna.
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Germany abets Sinhalicisation of education in occupied Tamil homeland

[TamilNet, Thursday, 29 November 2018, 18:02 GMT]
A'riviyal-nakar (Knowledge city) was a concept developed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the de-facto administration of the Tamil state in the suburb of Ki'linochchi. The University of Jaffna established the Faculty of Engineering in 2013 at A'riviyal-nakar, which is located 7km south of Ki'linochchi town. The ‘Sri Lanka’ German Training Institute (SLGTI) conceived during the regime of Rajapaksa in 2010 as a “vocational training project for the regions affected by the war,” started to function in 2014. Now, 80% of the students are Sinhala students. While all other technical institutions operating in the North use Tamil as the default language of learning and teaching, Tamil is not used as the language of education at the SLGTI, which is operating in “A'riviyal-nakar”.
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Sinhala police threaten organisers of Heroes Day events in Vadamaraadchi, Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 November 2018, 21:13 GMT]
Unknown attackers, believed to be policemen from Point Pedro station, on Tuesday night smashed the doors and windows of the residence of Mr Pon Sakthivel, a fisheries society activist and poet, who was involved in mobilising the Heroes Day Remembrance event at Chuppar-madam. The attackers had come with the intention of causing bodily harm to Mr Sakthivel and his brother, fisheries society sources told TamilNet on Wednesday. However, the family members who sensed suspicious activity in the vicinity of their house decided to spend the night with a relative elsewhere. Unable to find anyone in the house, the attackers have smashed the door and window, the sources said.
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