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GEOPOLITICS DROWNS SRI LANKA’S TAMILS: The great game
By M K Bhadrakumar
Sri Lanka snubbed Washington by rejecting the US offer to dispatch a naval force to provide humanitarian assistance.
The strange line-up of the member countries of the United Human Rights Council (HRC) for or against Sri Lanka at the special session of the body scheduled to take place in Geneva on Tuesday underscores the maritime Great Game unfolding in the Indian Ocean.
The special session is being convened at the request of 17 of the 47 members of the HRC, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Britain. Hovering in the background is the United States. It aims at forcing Sri Lanka to face charges of gross human rights violations in its war against the Tamil insurgents. An HRC recommendation to set up an international commission of inquiry would put Colombo in the docks. An HRC special session has been called only on 10 previous occasions.
But Colombo is not browbeaten. The seasoned poker player has tabled a counter resolution titled “Assistance to Sri Lanka in the promotion and Protection of Human Rights” commending Colombo for its victory over terrorism and soliciting funds for reconstruction. The 12 co-sponsors of the resolution include China, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia. India finds itself in the strange company but is justified in estimating that the HRC move against Sri Lanka is a non-starter. China and Russia will anyhow ensure that the ‘international community’ doesn’t torment Colombo. They have invited Sri Lanka to come close to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. In essence, Sri Lanka is the theatre where Russia and China are frontally challenging the US’s incremental global strategy to establish NATO presence in the Indian Ocean region. The US has succeeded in bringing the NATO upto the Persian Gulf region. The NATO is swiftly expanding its relationship with Pakistan. But it is Sri Lanka that will be the jewel in the NATO’s Indian Ocean crown. Russia and China (and Iran) are determined to frustrate the US geo-strategy. The hard reality, therefore, is that geopolitics is sidetracking Sri Lanka’s Tamil problem. Sri Lanka snubbed Washington by rejecting the US offer to dispatch a naval force to evacuate or provide humanitarian assistance to the Tamil civilians trapped in the war zone. China, Russia and Iran encouraged Colombo to reject the US ‘humanitarian intervention’ in yet another strategically vital region.
There is moral muddiness all around. Simply put, a ‘containment strategy’ on the part of the US towards Sri Lanka becomes unworkable. By helping Sri Lanka to withstand the US pressure, China has secured the status of a ‘steadfast ally.’ Apart from arms supplies totalling $100 million, China has overtaken Japan as Sri Lanka’s number one foreign donor. China gave $ 1 billion assistance last year as compared to $ 7.4 million and 1.25 million pounds by the US and UK respectively.
India views with unease the Chinese inroads into Sri Lanka as part of a broad move into the Indian Ocean. But India faces acute dilemma. Its capacity to cajole the diehard Sinhalese nationalists to compromise with the Tamils for an enduring settlement suffers so long as China extends such no-holds-barred political backing to the Colombo establishment.
But Delhi cannot roll back its substantial political, military and economic support to Sri Lanka, either. The interlocking interests of the two neighbouring countries are self-evident. The lure of Sri Lanka cannot be overestimated. The US would like us to believe that India-China rivalry is the sum total of the geopolitics of Sri Lanka. But this is a dissimulation of the actual great game.
It is very obvious that there is a huge geopolitical backdrop of power plays in the Indian Ocean. The US’s naval dominance is declining and it is “leveraging the growing sea power of allies such as India and Japan to balance against China,” to quote Robert Kaplan, well-known strategic thinker and author.
China’s ascendance feared
Arguably, the US volte face on Colombo’s war (after having been its staunch supporter until recently) stems from the strategic setback it suffered through miscalculation insofar as while American admirals were scared away by Sri Lanka’s civil war, China simply moved in. The West fears China’s ascendance. On China’s part, however, the fuelling station in Hambantota becomes vital for optimally using the series of port facilities it has lined up in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar connecting the southern Chinese province of Yunnan to the world market.
The naval presence in Sri Lanka becomes invaluable for China if the planned canal across the Isthmus of Kra in Thailand materialises connecting Indian Ocean with China’s Pacific coast, a project that could dramatically shift the balance of power in Asia in China’s favour. Therefore, no matter what it takes, the West and China (with Russian backing) will compete for gaining the upper hand in Sri Lanka.
Having said that, the US also has a need for greater cooperation with China. This in turn creates a compulsion for the US to act as a ‘broker’ between India and China. During his visit to Delhi on May 14, the US Pacific Command chief Admiral Timothy J Keating revealed that he declined an offer recently from a top-ranking Chinese naval official regarding a US-Chinese understanding to split the seas East of Hawaii and West of Hawaii between the two navies, while on his part he said he invited China to join the annual US-India naval exercises codenamed ‘Malabar Exercises,’ but China declined and preferred to remain as an observer.
Bush and Blair made up fake documents to show that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (while knowing that Iraq never did).. and went there and killed 150,000 civilians.
Atleast now the western world should understand that Tamils did not lie or over exaggerate the genocide and opperession by Sri Lankan State which is by religion and other things strongly bonded with China. We as tamils not ASKING anything that is not POSSIBLE in this world. We not asking even we need only seperate country. We ARE ONLY asking in our NORTH and EAST our politicians should govern us and they should be given freedom to do so with federal kind of autonamy. Why we need this?? Because we are different from majority Sinhaless in these Key Aspects :
01. Different Language
02. Different Religion
03. Different Culture
04. Different Part of the Island
05. Earlier both side kings used to Fight
HOW the world ALLOWS the Sinhalese to ENSLAVE every single tamil on this ISLAND..
As a HUMAN being we are given only One Hundred Years to Live By GOD.
Why we cannot live peacefully and happily with families and friends in this LIfe time .. Why we have to suffere.. How long it will continoue??
Please Western World. Help US Tamils to LIve as HUMAN Being on this Beautiful EARTH.
We all for generations will be very grateful to you. Please help us to get a Political AUTONAMY. Sinhala government on its own will NEVER give anything... Please help us
There are over twenty thousands innocent Tamils killed, while these morally and intellectually bankrupt Asian so called leaders (India Pakistan China,) play this stupid game. If India has any common sense then it would support US,UK and Europe and easily win this game and save several more thousand innocent lives.
Geo political war .Scape goats sinhalese and the Tamils. It is time asia unites for her own security.If not we will be fighting each other cheered by the west for her own gain.
Arrogant Lanka shows its TEMERITY in questioning USA itself about its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan !
Lanka was questioned by the Good international community about its use of heavy artillery and aircraft to bomb civilian areas , hospitals and No Fire Zone.
Lanka snubed them , asking them to mind their own business .Snubbed USA accusing USA of discriminate Drone attacks in Afpak.
Lanka is going the Communist way.
The Red Sash Rajapakse brothers and Lankan military are cavorting with China. All this bodes ill for Lanka.
China is building an ultra modern port in Hambantota in South Lanka.Is it to be used in case of a future war with USA , which has a naval base leased from UK in Deigo Garcia , Chagos Archipelago,Indian Ocean .
This is a very good article. This article unveils hidden truth of power game played by East & West. This is the bigger picture. I don’t have adequate reasons to believe that any of these big powers are genuinely keen to see Sri Lanka’s emergence. Whatever people say, one thing I really admire about current Sri Lankan leadership is that they have used their cards in extremely cleaver manner and stayed focus on their goal until it was achieved. Western influence or rather hypocrisy didn’t succeed this time as usually happens
THIS ARTICLE TELL THE REALITY IGNORED BY THE MALAYALIES AT SOUTH BLOCK-IT IS THE SAME MALAYALIES WRONG ADVICE HELP CHINA TO GRAB 20,000 SQ.KM INDIAN LAND.TAMILS IN SL ARE WELL EDUCATED AND ECONOMICALLY VERY SOUND AND THEY ARE READY TO FORGIVE CHINA AND JOIN WITH HER AT THE HOUR OF NEED BUT NEVER EVER FORGIVE INDIA.THE LOOSER IS INDIA AND CHINA HAS ALREADY ENGULFED SRI LANKA.INDIA HAS NO MONEY OR MUSCLE TO CHALLENGE CHINA.SOON PEOPLE AT THE SOUTH BLOCK GET TOGETHER AND CRY,THEY HAVE ALIENATED REAL FRIENDS TAMILS.PAKISTAN AND CHINA AT THE GATE OF INDIA NOW WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
NO MORE USD 2 BILLION LOAN FROM IMF TO SRI LANKA .SWEDEN IS GOING TO CLOSE HER EMBASSY IN SRI LANKA SOON AND MANY WILL FOLLOW.SPECIAL TARIFF FOR READY MADE GARMENTS FOR SRI LANKA EXPORTS WILL BE SCARPPED SOON AND HUNDED THOUSANDS SL SINHALAEASE ARE GOING TO LOOSE JOBS.ALREADY TOURISM IS DEAD IN SRI LANKA,WESTERN EUROPEAN WILL BE DISCOURAGE TO HOLIDAY THERE.SINHALAESAE ARE GOING TO DANCE AGAIN ON THE STREETS BECAUSE SRI LANKA IS GOING TO JOIN IN THE ELITE CLUB OF SOMALIA AND ZIMBAWBE.
GUYS NOW DO YOU KNOW THE POWER OF TAMIL DIASPORA?
SriLakan genocide brought transparency on identifying the enemies of the West. Look at the countries aligned with srilanka: China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, India, Libya, these are the countries wanting to see US ousted from the "World Leader" post, also this country setting a bad precedence for other hostile countries to the West to rise up, which should not be tolerated!
It is very interesting how the LTTE played an invaluable element in plans of the west. The LTTE sympathisers are full of hot air when they claim genocide and human rights violations, tends to ignore that more than 80pct of of the Tamil population live in Colombo in the south of the country. However, the LTTE accusations have allowed the west to meddle in the affairs of a small nation in Southeast Asia. It is also very evident of wests interest in SL due to the last ditch efforts of the west to save the LTTE leaders and the punitive action that is being planned in the UN at present. There is obviously more at stake for the west than a mere war in small Island nation in the Indian ocean.
Indiscriminate firing at civilians is a war crime in the first place, the pertinent question to ask is, given that GoSL/SLA created the so called Safety Zone, whereby the Tamil civilians were forced to move into the area due to indiscriminate bombings of their homes, etc - then surely bombing by SLA of this so called Safety Zone and killing thousands of Civilians, in addition to blockading them to humanitarian aid, food and shelter certainly constitutes War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. Its crucial the world understands the full horror that has taken place in Sri Lanka - whether its War Crimes by SLA with its indiscriminate bombing in the so-called No-fire Zone in massacring (anecdotal) 20,000+ Tamil civilians or LTTE preventing fleeing refugees.
The whole Indian community is ashamed by the act of Indian government to protect Sri Lanka from its war crimes. The great Mahathma sacrificed his life to bring India as a true nation for the truth. If there is nothing to hide why Sri Lanka or India should try to block international investigation. May God Save Eeelam Tamils
I would like to ask a simple question. If whole Indian community is ashamed by the act of Indian government, why the hell this community elected the same government again with stronger power by making karunanidhi (so-called "friend" of tamils) loose his grip to control the government.. .. quite strange the way indians react he he..
as long as the Indian do not elect a patriotic indian born real blood of Indian and get rid of the narrow minded keralites policy makers,india would suffer and be under Red army soon through Srilanka from where the Tamils are eager to help the reds.
Excellent article that explains the plotted situation and refrains from mixing up emotional thoughts on Tamils issue.
I was simply amazed that there are no articles on topic similar to this and several other strange situations arising within Indian boundaries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Sri Lanka and Russia.
While Indian government seemed to be aware of all, has not been pro-actively turning around any situation to its advantage or at least not of any significance. Rather it sticks to age old failed stance of pure reaction and fear of staying away from blatant blames, although there is sincerity and careful approach added to age old stance.
I believe strongly having succumbed to pressure once again, government has increased a huge emotional divide within, supporting the Sri Lankan government while civilians were bombed and shelled throws a BIG BLACK QUESTION for Tamils who can understand politics. And the question is how can you trust Indian government? especially when it is Congress.
One of my young Chinese colleagues who has just become an Australian Citizen says that China must encircle India. They have Burma and now they have Sri Lanka. The communities who handed India to the British, French and Portuguese in the last centuaries are now doing the same, allowing India to be surrounded by enemies who can impact on its trade routes and security
Feel Free guys.. no china or russia or india is going to emerge in near future after the genocide that they made thro Sri Lanka...
There is nature which will respond in a few days... china, russia, pakistan, india will lose their peoples in Crores....
This is going to happen... Wait and Watch
OM KAAL BHAIRAVAAYA NAMAHA.
India always helped the wrong. India would have supported Tamils in order to win south Indian state and north of sri lanka. Today Sri Lanka played a wise game by manipulating india and china. God bless eelam Tamils
