Gotabaya: Only concerned about security aspects of Hambantota

[TamilNet, Saturday, 21 December 2019, 23:15 GMT]
SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was only seeking to ensure the security aspects of the Hambantota port and he doesn't intend to renegotiate the commercial deal as a whole, reported Xinhua, the state-operated news agency of China this week. "I am now not here to renegotiate the agreement as it is a commercial contract and I am not worried about the commercial aspect. But I am concerned about the security aspect as to whether there are any security lapses. That is what I am discussing with China,” Xinhua quoted Gotabaya Rajapaksa as saying on Thursday.
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Indian Navy Chief on 4-day visit to discuss maritime relations in Colombo with Trinco visit

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 December 2019, 23:52 GMT]
The Chief of the Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, Admiral Karambir Singh, is on a four-day visit to Colombo from 19 to 22 December 2019 to “consolidate and enhance the bilateral maritime relations between India and Sri Lanka,” a news release from the Indian Navy said. Admiral Karambir Singh was also scheduled to attend the passing out parade of midshipmen at the Naval & Maritime Academy, Trincomalee on Sunday, the report said. Upon his arrival to the island on Thursday, Karambir Singh called on SL Defence Secretary Major General (retd) Kamal Gunaratne.
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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.
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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.
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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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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China, Pakistan send top diplomats to meet Gotabaya in Colombo

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 December 2019, 23:24 GMT]
Newly elected SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was visiting New Delhi to patch up Colombo’s relations with India, was also strengthening his trust with China and Pakistan upon his return to Colombo on Monday. Former Chinese Ambassador Wu Jianghao, was visiting Mr Rajapaksa as the envoy of Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Chinese News agency Xinhua reported that Colombo and Beijing have agreed to speed up cooperation on major economic projects. In the meantime, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was also timing his visit to Mr Gotabaya on the same day.
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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.
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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.
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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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Russian naval vessel visiting Hambantota coincides with return of Gotabaya Rajapaksa

[TamilNet, Friday, 22 November 2019, 23:13 GMT]
The Sinhala Navy was enthusiastically arranging sporting and cultural events for the crew of Perekop, a naval training vessel of the Russian Baltic fleet, which docked at Hambantota port operated by China, a day after Gotabaya Rajapaksa was sworn in as the SL President. “India is likely to welcome this decision since it has been concerned over the use of the strategically located port by the Chinese Navy and has been desirous of Russia expanding its presence in the Indo-Pacific region to make it more inclusive,” observed Mumbai-based The Economic Times in a news report published on Friday.
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Former IFS diplomat advises New Delhi to embrace Rajapaksas trading off rights with interests

[TamilNet, Thursday, 21 November 2019, 23:41 GMT]
“There is no way Rajapaksa will accept federalism in Sri Lanka. The Tamil community will have to come to terms with the grim implications of it and learn to live with what is on offer,” commented M K Bhadrakumar, a former Indian Foreign Service diplomat responding to a question from the Turkish Anadolu news agency on Thursday. Eezham Tamils were “dispossessed by Colombo and disowned by New Delhi,” he said advising New Delhi to trade-off Tamil rights-oriented concerns with the strategic interests of India. “The bottom line is that Gotabaya will be no less a strongman than Prime Minister Modi. It will be exceedingly foolish to adopt a prescriptive attitude toward Colombo. Any such attempt will meet with rebuff. Success lies in carrying the new president along,” the former envoy Bhadrakumar said.
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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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Indian FM visits Gotabaya to ensure Colombo’s conformity to US-India geopolitics in Indian Ocean

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 19 November 2019, 22:50 GMT]
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was quick to visit Colombo and meet the newly elected SL President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Tuesday evening. Jaishankar has been a key figure influencing the Indo-US geopolitical outlook in the recent times, and his unscheduled direct presence in Colombo inviting Mr Gotabaya to India at his earliest was nothing else than an indication that the USA is pulling strings. Informed diplomatic sources in Colombo said Gotabaya Rajapaksa was also well aware that India and the USA were tightly synchronised than ever before on defence and maritime affairs of the Indian Ocean.
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Shivaji manifesto demands IC make Colombo to provide autonomy to Tamils

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 November 2019, 23:48 GMT]
The Tamil people call upon the International Community (IC) to make the SL State grant autonomy to them in the merged North-East. If the SL State fails to offer Tamils their legitimate rights within the first one year of the new term of the incoming SL President, the IC and the UN should conduct a UN-monitored referendum to determine the political preference of the Tamil people. Furthermore, the IC and the UN should launch international investigations on the crimes committed in the island against the Tamil people, including the genocide, says M.K. Shivajilingam, the Tamil candidate contesting the presidential elections. The Tamil-speaking Muslim people and the Up-country Tamils are entitled to self-determination. They shall be given full autonomy to look after their affairs in their regions, the manifesto released in Trincomalee states.
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Canada should move ICJ on Tamil genocide, US position disappointing: Ananthy

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 November 2019, 16:33 GMT]
Canada is home to the largest number of Eezham Tamils in the diaspora. Recently, a resolution has been passed in the Canadian parliament calling for international investigations on the allegation of Tamil genocide. Therefore, Canada could consider suing the SL State in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, also known as the Genocide Convention. Canada could reasonably justify the move as a significant group of its population, being Canadian Eezham Tamils directly and indirectly affected by the genocide that has taken place in the island, said former Northern Provincial Council Minister Ananthy Sasitharan. She had accompanied Tamil presidential candidate M.K. Shivajilingam in his meeting with the US Embassy officials in Jaffna after they jointly filed his nomination, Ms Ananthy said.
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