Pompeo blacklists pro-China Shavendra giving Gotabaya second chance to toe US line

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 February 2020, 19:44 GMT]
It was Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who led the genocidal onslaught on Eezham Tamils in 2009, giving instructions to the then Major General Shavendra Silva to bomb the hospitals as well as to carry out the brutal white-flag killings. Gotabaya was a US citizen and SL Defence Secretary at that time. Instead of holding the greatest war criminal and genocidaire, liable under US Congress’s War Crimes Act, accountable for the crimes, the Trump administration has opted for a different approach with strategic interests in mind. The US State Department is enticing him offering carrots while pointing its stick selectively against his pro-China Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva. On Friday, US Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo designated Silva under Section 7031(c) of US Department of States Appropriations Act, passing a severe message to Gotabaya not to delay toeing the US line.
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IC accountable for Gotabaya reneging on justice commitments: TNA MP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 21 January 2020, 22:24 GMT]
Several countries in the International Community (IC) supported the Sri Lankan State that waged a genocidal war against the Tamils. The Tamil national liberation struggle and its taproot [the LTTE] were wiped out through a genocidal war by the SL State with the backing of other states in the IC. It was Gotabaya Rajapaksa who commanded the genocidal war in 2008 and 2009. Now, what are these countries going to do to enforce international justice, especially after Mr Rajapaksa pronouncing all the missing as dead, asked Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian S Shritharan at the SL Parliament on Tuesday. Today, we are voicing for justice as a nation subjected to genocide. We are not merely speaking from a suppressed situation or a coated environment of so-called development, Mr Shritharan said adding that Tamils were no longer begging for justice, but demanding international justice.
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Putting Russian abetment of Tamil genocide in proper context

[TamilNet, Monday, 13 January 2020, 23:55 GMT]
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has given an email-interview to Colombo-based Daily News before his visit to the island on Monday. The long-serving Russian FM was stressing a set of principles such as “indivisible security” and “non-interference in the internal affairs” of the states in the Indian Ocean. Mr Lavrov also mentioned “peaceful settlement of disputes and non-use of force or the threat of force”. As far as the Eezham Tamils are concerned, they will never forget the use of lethal weapons deployed by genocidal Sri Lanka’s military. Much of those were supplied by Russia, particularly the OFAB-500 cluster bombs deployed by the SL Air Force and the thermobaric infantry weapons such as RPO-A Shmels used by the SL Army against Eezham Tamils.
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Sampanthan indirectly implicates India, US, EU, UK, Japan, Norway for Tamil predicament post-2009

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 January 2020, 23:10 GMT]
Despite all the valid criticisms against the revisionist TNA hierarchy, which has misled the occupied nation of Eezham Tamils by deviating from the fundamentals of the democratically mandated aspiration after 2009, one should appreciate TNA Parliamentary Group Leader R. Sampanthan for strait-forwardly reiterating, especially in recent times, the names of the regional and international formations ultimately responsible to crush the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The countries and the alliances mentioned by Mr Sampanthan include India, USA, Japan, Norway and the European Union with the UK. Sampanthan refers to the block of countries excluding India as the “international community”, and these countries were formally represented by identifiable individuals who served the formation of Tokyo Co-Chair Donors. A troika of diplomats was representing India at the height of the war.
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Gotabaya backtracks on Colombo’s assurances to New Delhi: Sumanthiran

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 January 2020, 23:31 GMT]
Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran has said that SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was regressing from the assurances made by his predecessors, including his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, to New Delhi on three occasions about the full implementation of the 13th Amendment. When India intervened in 1987, Colombo turned towards the “right direction” and started to “acknowledge the diversity of its peoples,” by amending the Constitution, the TNA parliamentarian said. The equal status between the peoples in the island is not dependent on their respective numerical strength. “This principle must be acknowledged if our democracy is to survive and indeed flourish, and not regress into naked majoritarianism. Regretfully, in his address to Parliament on 3rd January 2020 the President has articulated such a regressive position,” he said.
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Maha Sangha wants anti-LTTE forces mobilised to conquer economic war, international challenges

[TamilNet, Sunday, 05 January 2020, 22:22 GMT]
The Maha Sangha of the Sinhala Buddhist Theravada Establishment in the island staged an all-night Pirith Chanting Ceremony at SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence in Colombo on Saturday. While delivering a special sermon, Professor Ven Medagoda Abayatissa Thero “pointed out that the alliance that came together to defeat the LTTE should join again to conquer the economic war and international challenges,” a news release issued by the SL Presidential Secretariat revealed on Sunday. The Maha Sangha was invoking “blessings on the President, war heroes, the citizens and the country,” the news release further stated.
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Eezham Cinema takes shape with Chinam-ko'l movie filmed in occupied Tamil Eelam

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 January 2020, 23:41 GMT]
Sinamkol (Ciṉamkoḷ/சினம்கொள்), meaning “infuriate”, is a theatrical movie filmed in the occupied Tamil Eelam narrating the situation of former LTTE freedom fighters. The critically acclaimed film gets screened in Europe and North America this weekend (03-05 January) in eight countries, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom and the USA, after a series of successful premiere shows. Canada-based Ranjith Joseph, the story writer and the director of the film, has demonstrated incredible ingenuity in circumventing the censorship hazards of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka in making the movie, which was shot in 70 locations in the three districts of Ki'linochchi, Mullaiththeevu and Jaffna in 2017. The approach of the story is genuine to the core in all its aspects.
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Tamil Political Prisoner passes away after 26 years of SL imprisonment

[TamilNet, Thursday, 02 January 2020, 23:07 GMT]
A 45-year-old Tamil Political Prisoner (TPP) from Batticaloa, Mahendran Sellappillai, passed away after suffering from a life-threatening illness (cancer) in the custody of genocidal Sri Lanka on Thursday. He was 19-year-old when the occupying Sinhala military detained him under the notorious so-called Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) during a cordon-and-search operation in Batticaloa on 27 September 1993, just three days after he had lived together with his newly married wife. The SL Army and its much-feared paramilitary operatives tortured Mahendran, who was illiterate. His family was poverty-stricken, and its livelihood was dependent on toddy-tapping. His life ended after twenty-six years, three-months and six days of custody in the various prisons of genocidal Sri Lanka. His story exposes not only the tragic fate of the TPPs but also the mindset of the SL regimes in Colombo.
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Families of missing Tamils in Vanni turn their protest against EPDP

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 December 2019, 17:41 GMT]
The families of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of the occupying Sinhala military in the genocidal war up to 2009 have turned the focus of their protest against SL Minister Douglas Devananda, who has been a close ally of the Rajapaksa regime. Mr Devananda's EPDP was a former Tamil paramilitary group, operated by the occupying Sinhala military. The families have been irked by the attempts by Devananda to dilute their continues protests that have passed one thousand days this month.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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“Gota, go home,” mothers in Jaffna protest against the architect of white-van abductions

[TamilNet, Monday, 28 October 2019, 23:02 GMT]
The kith and kin of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of the occupying Sinhala military during the regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa staged a protest in Jaffna on Monday, when his sibling, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa contesting the forthcoming SL Presidential elections came to woo the Tamil voters in the North on Monday. The mothers gathered in front of Col Kiddu Park at Nalloor staging their symbolic protest against the former SL Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. The world community must call for international criminal investigations against the crimes committed by Mr Gotabhaya, the mothers said. They were also denouncing internal and hybrid forms of the inquiry approved by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva as futile.
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SL Navy silently extends occupation of coastal lands at Kirimichchai in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 October 2019, 23:24 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military’s naval detachment in Batticaloa, “SLNS Kashyapa,” has silently extended the appropriation of lands at Kirimichchai, a coastal cashew farming area located 44 km north of Batticaloa city. The military land grab has been going on for the last ten months. However, the SL Navy has not obtained necessary permissions from the civil authorities at the district or divisional level, informed administrative sources said. In the meantime, residents in the area have witnessed accelerated construction activities inside the military zone. It is not known whether the SL Navy is converting the coastal stretch into a military-operated tourist resort or an industry, they said.
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SL Police resorts to violence in grabbing lands of Tamil fishers in Batticaloa North

[TamilNet, Thursday, 17 October 2019, 19:14 GMT]
The livelihood of thirty resettled Tamil fisher families have been severely affected as the occupying Sinhala police have dismantled their centre for marketing and exchanging the fish produce says T. Uthayakumar, the chairperson of Challith-theevu Fisher Association. Challith-theevu is located 66 km north of Batticaloa city and comes under the administrative division of Koa'ra'laip-pattu North (Vaakarai). The occupying SL military is also staging amusement activities for their visitors from the South, and the SL Police is accompanying them, causing cultural disharmony between the communities of the occupiers and the occupied.
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SL Governor's latest land grab poses danger to archaeological traces of Eezham Tamils

[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 October 2019, 22:15 GMT]
SL Governor to North Mr Suren Raghavan is attempting to alienate 115 acres of lands at Kauthaari-munai in Ma'na'niththa'lai sandbar of Poo-nakari (Pooneryn) division to a private Tamil diaspora business person from Australia before his Governor term expires. Mr Raghavan is deceptively suppressing objections from the Tamil civil sources and the grassroots activists in Ki'linochchi district, informed grassroots activists in Poonakari told TamilNet. The 25 km long sandbar, which extends towards the Jaffna Peninsula from Poonakari in the main island, is of immense natural beauty and archaeological value to the Eezham Tamils. The area is dotted with archaeological remains ranging from microlithic/megalithic times to the times of the Dutch, covered by massive sand dunes.
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Vote for Self-Determination, reject major candidates for more effective boycott

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 October 2019, 22:07 GMT]
A section of civil activists in the North-East jointly promoted the idea of fielding a common Tamil candidate in the SL Presidential Election this time. The idea looked genuine and the process went on until the last minute deadline to find a contestant. The hidden hands of India and West were trying to influence the choice of the candidate through remote control manipulations. The process didn't succeed to the disappointment of the genuinely involved as well as the indirect actors. At the same time, some Tamil sections also argued the case for a boycott of the presidential elections. However, none of them expected the manoeuvre of two former provincial councillors with independent intuition to propose a better solution to the Eezham Tamils. M.K. Shivajilingam of TELO legacy and Ananthy Sasitharan of former LTTE affiliation have nailed it this time. Now the Establishments are after them.
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