Wickramasinghe worse in China dealings: Namal Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2018, 23:21 GMT]
“If you look at the agreements that honourable Ranil Wickramasinghe got into with certain countries [China], it is far worse than [what my father did in] getting them to invest in our country,” Namal Rajapaksa, the eldest son of Mahinda Rajapaksa, said as his response to a direct question posed by the Indian NDTV correspondent in Colombo. His question was that there was a fear in Indian quarters that the return of Rajapaksa would lead to a pro-China tilt.
Full story >>

Let Sinhala nation decide its fate, keep focus on Tamil struggle

[TamilNet, Saturday, 27 October 2018, 23:51 GMT]
The constitutional coup is an outcome of a fierce competition raging between UPFA and UNP agents, who want to exploit the accelerating trade-war between the two powers, the USA and China. The USA has already established its strategic military access to the island through India. The current dispute is not aimed at taking military or diplomatic side with a particular actor, Tamil political observers in Jaffna said. The right-wing populistic SLPP led by Rajapaksa, the strongman from Hambantota and the centre-left SLFP chaired by Sirisena, another strongman from Polonnaruwa, are staunch Sinhala nationalist parties having the blessings of the Buddhist establishment. The SL military is excited by their unity. Tamils, having no leadership after the LTTE, are puzzled. They are deceived to believe that China is behind Rajapaksa and that the USA is sticking with Wickramasinghe.
Full story >>

Sirisena stages constitutional coup, installs Rajapaksa as SL Prime Minister

[TamilNet, Friday, 26 October 2018, 23:39 GMT]
The executive president of genocidal Sri Lanka, Maithiripala Sirisena, has suddenly installed former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa as the SL Prime Minister after withdrawing his UPFA from the so-called ‘good governance’ alliance on Friday night. The soft parliamentary coup, which seems to be a carefully planned secret move, has been justified by Mr Sirisena as adhering to the constitutional provisions of the unitary state. Mr Sirisena, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, had this already in mind when he addressed the UN General Assembly last month in the USA, political observers in Jaffna commented. Maithiripala was praising his troops on the ground during his UN visit to Donald Trump's USA. The UNP is now reaping what it sowed 40 years ago in 1978 when the late J.R. Jayawardene introduced the executive presidency.
Full story >>

Rajapaksa ally vows to erect Buddhist viharas in Vanni

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 October 2018, 09:29 GMT]
Sinhala parliamentarians belonging to Jathika Nidahas Peramuna (JNP) or National Freedom Front, an extreme Sinhala nationalist JVP-breakaway group, which is aligned with former SL President Mahinda Rajapaksa, visited Mullaiththeevu and Vavuniyaa on Thursday confronting the Tamil residents. The Tamil villagers opposed the group, but it vowed to erect Buddha statues confronting the Eezham Tamils. The JNP parliamentarians were accompanied by an extremist Buddhist monk who has been blocked by Mullaiththeevu Magistrate from erecting Buddha statues under cover of so-called conservation.
Full story >>

SL-AG Department finds new excuses to dodge hunger-striking TPPs demands

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 03 October 2018, 15:07 GMT]
SL Attorney General's Department has told TNA Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran that it would not be considering the demands of three of the twelve hunger-striking Tamil political prisoners at Anuradhapura prison at all. The families of the TPPs said the explanation given by the SL-AG was illogical and condemned the TNA for passively tolerating the Colombo establishment citing ongoing disputes between the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena's UPFA and the UNP led by SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe.
Full story >>

US oil firm surveys seas off North-East using Chinese vessel

[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 September 2018, 23:36 GMT]
Coinciding with the naval exercises of USA, Japan and India at Trincomalee with the navy of genocidal Sri Lanka, the U.S. oilfield services firm Schlumberger, has launched seismic oil exploration survey beyond Mannaar and Cauvery-basins in the sea of Tamils located off the eastern coast of occupied Tamil Eelam. BGP Pioneer, the vessel deployed to conduct the study, belongs to the Chinese state oil company China National Petroleum Corporation, and it is sailing under the flag of Panama. The deal of the USD 50-million project, run at free of cost to the occupying Colombo, is set for ten years. The target area is JS5 & JS6 blocks off the eastern coast facing the Bay of Bengal.
Full story >>

Naval partnerships off Tamil Eelam coast need perusal at backdrop of structural genocide

[TamilNet, Saturday, 08 September 2018, 22:59 GMT]
Japan’s Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera visited Colombo from 20th to 22nd August and met high officials of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka, discussing maritime security and development of port facilities. His visits focused on the ports in Colombo, Hambantota and in particular Trincomalee, the capital of the occupied country of Eezham Tamils. The following Week, Japan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Kazuyuki Nakane visited Colombo, amongst others to inaugurate the commissioning ceremony of two state-of-the-art patrol-ships worth around 11 million dollars donated by Japan to the SL Coast Guard. The Japanese collaboration with genocidal Sri Lanka comes as part of a joint U.S., India and Japanese geopolitical move, Tamil political observers in Trincomalee said.
Full story >>

NPC CM prepares to face contempt of court case engineered by Sumanthiran et al

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 September 2018, 22:15 GMT]
The justice system of the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka has been deployed against the Northern Provincial Council as the TNA Parliamentarian and President's Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran was making another die-hard move to weaken the position of the NPC Chief Minister and former Supreme Court Justice C.V. Wigneswaran through furnishing new cases. The latest in the series is a contempt of court case, filed against him and two of his ministers, Ananthy Sasitharan and K. Sivanesan. The case comes amidst an appeal filed by NPC Chief Minister against the interim order issued by the SL Court of Appeal, pending a scheduled hearing on Wednesday. However, the NPC CM is fully prepared to address the challenge, informed sources in Jaffna told TamilNet on Monday. It is not the reputation of the NPC CM, but that of the SL Justice System, getting exposed, political observers in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Wickramasinghe's ‘national policy’ ministry practices Sinhala Only policy

[TamilNet, Thursday, 23 August 2018, 17:11 GMT]
The SL Ministry of National Policies and Economic Affairs, which is led by SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, has issued appointment letters in the Sinhala language to Eezham Tamil applicants in Batticaloa, who applied to the positions of ‘development officers’ which is offered to unemployed graduates at a district level. The applicants who struggled to find out the details of their appointment letters were shocked to learn that they had been posted to Sinhala areas in Polonnaruwa and other districts. Those who received positions in Polonnaruwa district in the North Central Province said they would have to spend 21,000 rupees a month to commute to work. Wickmrasinghe's ministry has only promised “an all-inclusive monthly allowance of Rs 20,000”.
Full story >>

Coningham discovers Jaffna as premillennial maritime trade centre, but at which price?

[TamilNet, Sunday, 29 July 2018, 23:28 GMT]
“If you think of the history of Jaffna Fort within [the timespan of] a day, the colonial period only starts at [the final] three minutes to midnight. All of the rest of that period is a history of before colonial contact. It is a history, which identifies that Jaffna Fort is engaged in Indian Ocean Trade. [...] Most significantly, we have evidence that Jaffna was core within the Indo-Roman trade. So, [within] 200 BC and 200 AD, we have Jaffna at the centre of the Indian Ocean trade,” stated the British Archaeologist Professor Robin Coningham at a workshop cum press conference held at the University of Jaffna on Saturday. However, he was also reiterating the nature of the attached politics and the paradigm behind, which was nothing else than heritage-genocide as far as the Eezham Tamils are concerned, commented political activists in Jaffna.
Full story >>

TELO councillor of NPC questions ‘achievements’ of TNA hierarchy

[TamilNet, Friday, 27 July 2018, 18:34 GMT]
35 years have elapsed since pogrom of Black July, which was waged against the Eezham Tamils with the sponsorship of the UNP regime at that time. The incumbent SL Prime Minister, Ranil Wickramasinghe of the UNP, was a cabinet minister at that time when his fellow cabinet ministers were actively backing the pogrom. The late J.R. Jayawardene, who was the president at that time, came with the infamous declaration ‘war for war, peace for peace’ and escalated the pogrom. This month, Ranil Wickramasinghe has been visiting Jaffna to deceive the Tamil people with so-called development, says NPC Councillor Vinthan Kanagaratnam of the TELO. He called it a shame that the TNA parliamentarians were collaborating with the UNP-SLFP government even after failing to win anything tangible from them.
Full story >>

Role of powers with colonial legacy, abetting contemporary Sinhalicisation, requires scrutiny

[TamilNet, Sunday, 22 July 2018, 20:33 GMT]
The National Housing Development Authority (NHDA), which comes under the occupying unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka, is silently transferring 5 acres of lands to the notorious British-trained ‘Special Task Force’ (STF) to expand its commando post into a permanent camp to defend the controversial Sinhala colony at the strategic entrance to Jaffna at Naavat-kuzhi. The colonisation scheme, initiated during the rule of Rajapaksa brothers, received state-patronisation after the regime change backed by the West. The colony is planned to control the arteries of the city and to Sinhalicise Jaffna city itself. The trend is also evidenced in the latest move by the occupying Colombo to station its troops at the Jaffna Fort, which is ‘developed’ with the blessings, funding and research coming from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Full story >>

New Delhi fails to update Jaffna on Palaali airport plans

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 July 2018, 22:09 GMT]
SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has repeatedly been claiming that Colombo was proceeding with its plans to renovate the runway at Palaali in Jaffna with Indian assistance allowing flight services from South India to Jaffna. There were also reports that New Delhi was reviewing a plan for “regional airport” as before the times of war. In the meantime, the occupying military of Colombo, which has been deploying Palaali runway as its airbase since 1977, is rushing ahead with planting coconut and palmyra saplings in the lands seized from the uprooted Tamils in five GS divisions. The SL authorities have taken the lands citing a war-time Gazette notification from 07 August 1987. However, the office of the Consulate General of India (CGI) in Jaffna, has no information from New Delhi regarding India's plans on the airport, informed sources at the Northern Provincial Council said.
Full story >>

Colombo steps up shadow war against NPC Chief Minister Wigneswaran

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 July 2018, 21:29 GMT]
The Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council, Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, has stated that he would be opposing the level of militarisation even if the SL military was to behave in a manner attracting the people of the North by doing good deeds. In his weekly Tamil statement formatted as Q&As, Wigneswaran was responding to the latest comment coming from Lt Gen Mahesh Senanayake, the commander of the SL military, that the NPC CM was trying to cause a rift between the SL military and the people in the North. In the meantime, Tamil political observers in Jaffna said Colombo had staged a series of hostile events in the recent days with the hidden agenda to checkmate the emerging symbolic leadership of the mainstream Tamil politics.
Full story >>

SL Military Intelligence recommences recruitment of notorious ex-paramilitary operatives

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 July 2018, 21:53 GMT]
SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the occupying military, and SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe have given green signals to the respective intelligence services under their control to recommence recruitment of former Tamil paramilitary operatives in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils in the North and East, informed ex-paramilitary sources in Jaffna said.
Full story >>

Colombo schemes Sinhala military-led industrialisation of KKS exploiting geopolitics

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 June 2018, 22:37 GMT]
The occupying military of genocidal Sri Lanka was re-constructing the KKS Harbour with the assistance from New Delhi after 2009. The Indian Central Government has been claiming that assistance was meant for the development of the war-affected North. But, the native people or their Provincial Council, which was introduced following the Indo-Lanka Accord, have no say or access to KKS Harbour, Cement Factory and the people are not resettled. The entire area is still a Sinhala Military Zone. Now, plans are afoot to set up an IT industry through deploying occupying Sinhala military personnel with foreign assistance. In the meantime, SL military commander in Jaffna is also aiming to put up an export-oriented garments industry in KKS and is consulting with major garments industrial owners in the South.
Full story >>

Genocidal Sri Lanka wants to militarise Dutch Fort in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 May 2018, 19:18 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military of genocidal Sri Lanka wants to station its occupying forces into the Jaffna Fort, which has been renovated into a heritage site for tourism with the official assistance from the government of The Netherlands. SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe and Sinhala colonial Governor to North Reginald Cooray have been promoting the idea during the recent visit by the former to Jaffna on 28 May. The latest move is an acid test for the integrity of the Government of The Netherlands, which has been criticised by the Eezham Tamils as failing to recognise the territorial and heritage ownership of Eezham Tamils but facilitating the agenda of the occupying SL State with its Colombo-centered approach of the entire renovation project.
Full story >>

Uprooted Tamils confront SL Minister on 452th day of protest

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 May 2018, 18:32 GMT]
Uprooted people of Keappaa-pulavu in Mullaiththeevu district laid siege to the Divisional Secretariat office of Karai-thu'raip-pattu on Saturday when SL Minister of Resettlement D. M. Swaminathan visited Mullaiththeevu for a meeting on livelihood assistance projects. The protesters confronted the SL Minister when he emerged out of the meeting. Mr Swaminathan managed to force himself through the protesters with the help of his ministerial security and the SL police and left the office after a brief stand-off.
Full story >>

Muslim politicians block relocation of SL military base in Batticaloa

[TamilNet, Saturday, 07 April 2018, 21:34 GMT]
The occupying Sinhala military in Batticaloa is under pressure to abandon its plan of relocating one of its artillery bases 18 km north of Batticaloa city as the Tamil-speaking Muslim villagers have been protesting against the move and their politicians have taken the issue seriously with the Colombo regime, informed sources in Batticaloa said. Rauff Hakeem, a cabinet minister in the SL government and Ali Zahir Moulana, an SLFP parliamentarian from Ea'raavoor, have been exerting pressure on the Colombo government against the planned military base at Punnaik-kudaa. Mr Hakeem seems to have managed to stop the move after making it as one of his key demands in the dealings with SL Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe before extending his support against the no-confidence motion in the SL Parliament, the sources further said.
Full story >>

Making decisions rooted in native political space

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 April 2018, 23:25 GMT]
The binary choice in Colombo-centric politics will always be between the devil and the deep blue sea as far as Eezham Tamils are concerned, commented Tamil political activists in Jaffna observing the latest happenings in the North as well as in the South. Eezham Tamils should not conceive their central political space succumbing to the electoral politics of the genocidal unitary system, which is promulgated by the Mahawansa-mindset and the international injustice sustained by geopolitical manoeuvrings. The Tamil-speaking people should instead invest their efforts on evolving a native and unified political space centred in the North-East with the diaspora, Tamil Nadu and global solidarity dimensions which extend beyond their territorial boundary, they said.
Full story >>