INTERNATIONAL FRAME &
STRUGGLE for Tamil Eelam: china
China - Sri Lanka's
Biggest Aid Donor
IANS,
Hindustan Times, 2 May 2009
"The
Sri Lankan government has been able to disregard international concern over
its civil war with Tamils because of financial and military backing by
China, a senior former Indian intelligence official was quoted saying on
Saturday. The Times newspaper said China has replaced Japan as Sri
Lanka's biggest foreign donor giving the island-nation nearly a billion US
dollars last year. By comparison, the US gave $7.4 million last
year, and Britain 1.25 million pounds. " more
Comment by
tamilnation.org
It will not come as a matter for surprise to many Tamils that the
UK based Times and the India based Hindustan Times should put the cart
before the horse. 'International concern' is about securing the
international community's own strategic interests in the
Indian Ocean region - strategic interests which have been
threatened by the China ward tilt by President Rajapaksa's
murderous regime. And that is why there is 'international
concern' about 'the civil war with Tamils'.
The concern is that with Tamil resistance annihilated, President
Rajapaksa will help embed Chinese interests in the island for the
forseeable future." We said it two years ago in
International Dimensions of Conflict in the Island of Sri Lanka,
Nadesan Satyendra, 2 October 2007 -
"...the
denial by international actors of their conflicting strategic
interests in Sri Lanka draws a veil over the real issues that any
meaningful conflict resolution process in the island will need to
address. We cannot ostrich like bury our collective heads in the
sand - and, to mix the metaphor, ignore the elephant in the room.
Whilst the goal of securing peace
through justice is loudly proclaimed by the international actors,
real politick leads them to deny the
justice of the Tamil Eelam struggle for freedom from alien Sinhala
rule.
The harsh reality is that on the one hand
international actors are concerned to use the opportunity of the
conflict in the island to advance each of their own strategic
interests - and on the other hand, Sri Lanka seeks to
use the political space created by the geo strategic triangle of
US-India-China in the Indian Ocean region, to buy the support
of all three for the continued rule of the people of Tamil
Eelam by a permanent Sinhala majority within the confines of
one state. The record shows that Sinhala Sri Lanka seeks to engage
in a 'balance of power' exercise of its own by handing over
parts of the island (and the surrounding seas) to India, US and
China. We have
India in the Trincomalee oil farm, at the same time we have a
Chinese coal powered energy plant in Trincomalee; we have a
Chinese project for the Hambantota port, at the same time we
have the
attempted naval exercises with the US from Hambantota (to
contain Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean); we have the
grant of
preferred licenses to India for exploration of oil in the Mannar
seas, at the same time we have a similar grant to China and
a 'road show' for tenders from US and UK based multinational
corporations; meanwhile we have the continued presence of
the
Voice of America installations in the island and the
ten year Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) was
signed by the United States and Sri Lanka on 5 March 2007. It
will not be a matter for surprise if the US has found Sri Lanka's
attempt to engage in a 'balance of power' exercise of its own
somewhat irritating - and has cautioned Sri Lanka privately that Sri
Lanka was not a super power and should not try to behave like one."
]
IANS, Hindustan Times, 2 May 2009
The Sri Lankan government has been able to disregard
international concern over its civil war with Tamils because of
financial and military backing by China, a senior former Indian
intelligence official was quoted saying on Saturday. The
Times newspaper said China has replaced Japan as Sri Lanka's
biggest foreign donor giving the island-nation nearly a billion
US dollars last year. By comparison, the US gave $7.4
million last year, and Britain 1.25 million pounds.
"That's why Sri Lanka has been so dismissive of international
criticism," B. Raman of the Chennai Centre for China Studies, a
former additional secretary in the Research and Analysis Wing
(RAW), India's external intelligence agency. "It knows it
can rely on support from China," he added.
The Times said strategic experts believe
a billion dollar commercial port that the Chinese are building
in the southern Sri Lankan town of Hambantota will
eventually become a base for its navy.
"Ever since Sri Lanka agreed to the [port construction] plan, in
March 2007, China has given it all the aid, arms and diplomatic
support it needs to defeat the Tigers, without worrying about
the West," the paper reported.
"China has cultivated ties with Sri Lanka for decades and became
its biggest arms supplier in the 1990s, when India and Western
governments refused to sell weapons to Colombo for use in the
civil war. Beijing appears to have increased arms sales
significantly to Sri Lanka since 2007, when the US suspended
military aid over human rights issues," it paper said.
The Times said many US and Indian military planners regard the
port as part of a
"string of pearls" strategy under which China is also
building or upgrading ports at Gwadar in Pakistan, Chittagong in
Bangladesh and Sittwe in Myanmar.
The strategy was outlined in a paper by
Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher J. Pehrson, of the Pentagon's Air
Staff, in 2006, and again in a report by the US Joint Forces
Command in November.
Stepping in after India's insistence on selling only defensive
weapons to Sri Lanka, the Chinese gave six F7 fighter aircraft
to Sri Lanka last year - apparently free of charge. The paper
quoted unnamed Indian security sources as saying China has
encouraged Pakistan to sell weapons to Sri Lanka and to train
Sri Lankan pilots to fly the Chinese fighters.
Comment
by
tamilnation.org
On 'India's insistence on selling
only defensive weapons to Sri Lanka'
see...
1.
Both India and Pakistan Trained us to Fight LTTE says Brigadier Udaya
Nanayakara, Sri Lanka Army Spokesman 29 April 2009
“We send our officers regularly to India and Pakistan for
specialised training. I did four courses in India and three in Pakistan. The
last time, I trained in Secunderabad”. He said Lankan forces have been
procuring the latest technology from both countries. “We know they are
rivals but we have nothing to do with that. We have benefited from both
India and Pakistan,”..We have been procuring equipment from China as well.
We wanted equipment and would pay later, China agreed. It was mostly
ammunition and we have already paid for it.... ...the Americans too helped
with the training. But they have trained very few, and only officers.
Majority of our men are trained by India and Pakistan."
2.
LTTE Spokesman Yogi, Pulikalinkuralukku Valangkiya Nerkanal
from Tamil Eelam , 24 April 2009
- "The war carried out by Sri Lanka was with the cooperation of the
United States, Great Britain, Norway and Japan amongst others and in
particular with India's support, blessings and military training. It was
a war carried out by Sri Lanka jointly with these big powers... "
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