[TamilNet, Thursday, 18 July 2013, 02:51 GMT]The recent joint US-Sri Lankan military exercise in Trincomalee,
coming after Colombo announcing the ‘arrest’ of a few police personnel
for the massacre of five Tamil students in Trincomalee, signals that the
USA is again sending a message to China that it still considers the
island in the Indian Ocean Region as a US-Indian territory, says a
geopolitical analyst in Trincomalee. The development also signals to
Tamils that powers locked in the geopolitical game are only seeking
eyewash and token responses from the Sri Lankan State. Political
solution will never come unless masses overpower the rotten
military-geostrategy approach of the powers, forcing them to seek
alternatives, the analyst said.
Back in 2006, before the genocidal onslaught on Vanni, the USA conducted
an ‘unprecedented exercise’ in Hambantota sending the same messages to
China and to the Tamils, as a report authored by the US-based global
intelligence company Stratfor at that time had claimed, the analyst
further writes reproducing the report by the US-based intelligence
company that had claimed in 2006 that the USA was contributing to
Rajapaksa regime’s war against the Tamil Tigers.
“The United
States has a large interest in Sri Lanka. On a strategic level, the
island sits on some of the most important shipping lanes in the world
near many geopolitical hotspots, and has one of the finest ports in the
world, Trincomalee,” was the wordings of the 2006 analyses by the
Stratfor.
One should take note that a CSIS report, issued six
years later in 2012, was of the view Sri Lanka was the most pro-U.S.
country in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) till 2008.
“Sri Lanka
has traditionally practiced a non-alignment policy but before 2008 was
arguably the most pro-U.S. country in the region, signing up to a range
of U.S.-led initiatives such as the Proliferation Security Initiative,
the Container Security Initiative, acquisition and cross-servicing
agreements, and intelligence-sharing. As the Sri Lankan civil war
intensified and neared its conclusion, relations with the United States
and the West grew more strained, and China began filling the void with
significant weapons exports and economic assistance.” (U.S. Force
Posture Strategy in the Asia Pacific Region: An Independent Assessment,
August 2012, p. 39).
Obviously, this indicates the U.S. need for
either enforcing Rajapaksa regime to fall in line with the de-facto
position or replacing the regime with another one that would re-instate
the de-facto alliance as it was before 2008.
Whatever the ways, ‘Sri Lanka’ is needed, as an ally to the United States is the underlying position.
This
is why the USA has taken the affair of tabling resolutions in UN Human
Rights Council, seeking to steer the process by limiting the ‘play
rules’ to be Rajapaksa’s own LLRC and India imposed Provincial Councils.
It is in this light the Tamils should see why the USA and its
outfits are hoodwinking the Tamils not to alter the play rules through a
mass struggle in the region as well as in the West.
Such
outfits manipulate Pro-Eelam diaspora groups and personalities among
Eezham Tamils to carryout a blatant ‘pro USA’ campaign.
A similar campaign is also being taken forward through Colombo-Mannaar-Jaffna axis in the island.
In Tamil Nadu, maneuverings by these forces were successfully challenged by the awaken students during the mass agitation.
The
pro-US outfits are particular in making Tamils not to view the
resolutions tabled by the USA as undermining the Tamil interest,
especially the intentional failure in not welcoming or calling for an
international investigation on Sri Lanka. The US resolution only took
‘note’ of the demand for international investigation as a measure of
veiled threat against the Rajapaksa regime.
In fact, what the
USA seeks from the Rajapaksa regime is to come up with eyewash measures
like the recent arrest of a few SL police personnel on the killing of
five Tamil students in Trincomalee in relieving the Sri Lankan regime
from the global responsibility in delivering justice.
Whether
the Rajapaksa regime would ‘mend its ways‘ to the U.S. designs in
reverting back to the regime’s de-facto U.S. alliance during 2005 to
2008 or not, what Eezham Tamils should take note of is to take forward
the political struggle with the focus of causing an attitudinal change
in the powers that continue to abet the genocidal State of Sri Lanka.
The ‘Stratfor report’ from October 20, 2006 is reproduced in full below:
Sri Lanka: Exercises with U.S. Send a Message to ChinaOctober 20, 2006 | 0241 GMT
Summary
The
U.S. Marine Corps will participate in unprecedented exercises with the
Sri Lankan navy at the end of October, deploying more than 1,000 Marines
and large support ships to drill with the Sri Lankan armed forces on
amphibious and counterinsurgency operations. Coincidentally, the
exercise is occurring on beaches in Hambantota -- precisely where the
Chinese are planning to build oil and bunker facilities.
Analysis
Elements
of the U.S. 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) embarked the ships of
the USS Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) to travel to Sri Lanka
for large-scale amphibious exercises with the Sri Lankan armed forces,
slated for the last week of October. The MEU is equipped with a robust
amphibious assault capability, including armored amphibious assault
vehicles and landing craft. The ESG's smaller amphibious ships -- the
USS Dubuque and USS Comstock -- and their embarked Marines will
reportedly play a prominent role in the maneuvers.
The exercises
will no doubt threaten the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is
part of the U.S. reasoning behind the exercises. However, the site of
the maneuvers -- off the southern beaches of Hambantoa, where China is
planning to build modern harbor facilities -- shows that India likely
signed off on this venture as a way to signal to China that the Indian
Ocean is U.S.-Indian territory.
The United States has a large
interest in Sri Lanka. On a strategic level, the island sits on some of
the most important shipping lanes in the world near many geopolitical
hotspots, and has one of the finest ports in the world, Trincomalee. On a
tactical level, training the Sri Lankan armed forces in amphibious
maneuvers will allow the United States to test its counterinsurgency
tactics by proxy against the Tigers, who will surely bear the brunt of
any new Sri Lankan military capability. The Tigers are the only
militants who boast an operational naval wing: the Sea Tigers. The Sea
Tigers possess a wide range of capabilities, including custom-built fast
suicide bomb boats, and were behind the Oct. 18 suicide attack on Sri
Lanka's southern Galle port. U.S. training and joint exercises will
allow the Sri Lankan armed forces to test out Washington's newest
theories on littoral battle without putting any U.S. soldiers at risk.
The
United States also hopes increased pressure on the Tigers will force
the group to seriously enter peace talks. Furthermore, any degradation
in the Tigers' ability to smuggle arms will take a large link out of the
black market weapons chain that stretches from Bangladesh to Indonesia.
Whatever Washington's reasons for the exercises, the maneuvers
could not happen without India's permission. Though New Delhi is not
nearly the geopolitical powerhouse that Washington is, the United States
has anointed India as its junior partner in the Indian Ocean. The
United States -- and other members of the Sri Lankan Donors Group, which
assists with post-tsunami rebuilding and brokers peace talks --
traditionally consults with India on all decisions related to Colombo.
It
is precisely this interest in regional pre-eminence that led India to
give the go-ahead for U.S. forces to participate in a major training
exercise geared toward fighting the Tamil insurgency. After all, India
cannot risk offending its own sizable Tamil minority if there is not a
substantial reward involved. In this case, the reward is the chance to
send a targeted message to one particular country with the U.S.-Sri
Lankan exercises: China.
The much-ballyhooed Indo-Chinese
rivalry is not nearly as heated as many believe. Significant
geographical factors -- such as the Himalayan Mountains and thousands of
miles of jungle -- prevent India and China from having any real
disputes. However, the countries share a common naval frontier near the
Strait of Malacca and Singapore. The United States, with Indian
assistance, intends to maintain the Indian Ocean as its own strategic
waterway. China's intrusion into the area by building ports at Gwadar in
Pakistan, in Myanmar and now possibly in Bangladesh irks New Delhi.
Thus, it is no coincidence that the exact area of the U.S.-Sri Lankan
exercises is Hambantota, the very harbor that China announced it would
begin developing for Colombo in 2005.
There are also indications
that the relationship between India and China is becoming increasingly
frayed. China was likely the major stumbling block to India's Shashi
Tharoor becoming U.N. secretary-general, and India has been blocking
Chinese investments in infrastructure due to security concerns. India,
already deeply rooted in its protectionist traditions, has focused its
rising economic nationalist agenda primarily on Chinese assets. For
example, Hong Kong-based Hutchison Ports Holdings has faced delays in
obtaining security clearances from New Delhi, and, as a result, has been
unable to commence operations on port projects at Mumbai and Chennai.
Chinese
President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit, during India's National Day, will
give both sides a chance to mend some fences, but the U.S. Marine Corps
exercises reveal a deeper geopolitical reality: The United States and
India will not tolerate Chinese expansion, especially into the Indian
Ocean.
Chronology:
US-Kerry press release on Geneva 