India News and Features Alliance (INFA) - Sri Lankan Crisis:DIPLOMACY UNDER TAMIL PRESSURE, by Monish Tourangbam,21 October 2008

As reports pour in about the Sri Lankan Army’s military offensives on various strongholds of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), including a claim of complete domination over Western Kilinochchi, the UPA Government is under pressure at home to actively respond instead of following a hands-off policy.

Earlier, an all-party meeting in Chennai called upon the Manmohan Singh government to help bring about a ceasefire in Sri Lanka and ask Colombo to go for a negotiated settlement. Here, Tamil Nadu MPs threatened to resign en masse, which if carried out, can reduce the Union government to a minority. The DMK MPs have unhesitatingly put in their papers. However, the resignation letters have been handed over to their leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi to be passed on to the presiding officers of both Houses of Parliament, at an appropriate time.

This apart, Karunanidhi had called for a human chain across Chennai, to protest the “human rights violations” in the strife-torn country. He wanted the Congress to draw inspiration from Jawaharlal Nehru’s words in 1939 on the plight of Indian-origin people abroad. “India is weak today and cannot do much for her children abroad. But, she does not forget them, and every insult to them is humiliation and sorrow for her. A day will come when her long arm of protection and her strength will compel justice for them”, he quoted Nehru. Reflecting on India’s emergence as a responsible power, particularly in South Asia, he added, “We are only saying that today should be the day Pandit Nehru was referring to.”

True to the tradition of coalition politics, the Union government is under pressure from its southern ally, the DMK. Manmohan Singh had a telephonic conversation with the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and pressed on the latter to ensure the safety of Tamil civilians in the increasingly volatile situation in the neighbourhood. According to reports, New Delhi’s concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in northern Sri Lanka and the plight of civilians was firmly conveyed. A section of the Government too expressed the need for External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to visit the island nation, to demonstrate New Delhi’s concern, though no decision has yet been taken.

Speaking on the sidelines of the IBSA meet, Manmohan Singh had reiterated the need for a positive solution and not a military victory in Sri Lanka, as per the prevailing situation. Here, it is worth recalling that Rajapaksa on October 11 had said he believed in a political situation and was confident that this would be best addressed after defeating the terrorists militarily.

One of the major issues raised between the Manmohan Singh-Rajapaksa talk was New Delhi’s long-standing demand from Colombo not to target the fishermen. Singh made it amply clear that killing of fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy is unacceptable. The two leaders agreed to chalk out a practical arrangement to prevent such incidents. Further, Singh emphasized the need for continued and uninterrupted relief supplies to the internally displaced persons and to nurture democratic process in the Eastern Province.

Following Manmohan Singh and Mukherjee’s intervention, Karunanidhi has expressed satisfaction and deferred any major intention of the DMK to pull out of the government and derail it. In addition to the vagaries of coalition politics, New Delhi has also been equally worried over more than 200,000 people in Sri Lanka abandoning their homes and planning to cross to Tamil Nadu, thus raising the fear of an acute refugee crisis.

On its part, Sri Lanka has chosen not to comment on the all-party meeting in Chennai saying it was an “internal matter” for India. Subsequently, senior adviser to President Rajapaksa, Banil Rajapaksa, re-emphasized the interim report submitted this January, in which the All Party Representative Conference (APRC) had recommended steps for total implementation of the 13th Amendment of the Lankan Constitution, made following the India-Sri Lanka Accord, 1987, holding elections to the Eastern Provincial Council and an interim political set-up in the north as a prelude to holding elections to the Northern Provincial Council.

Efforts are being made for a continued engagement between the two countries to clear the concerns regarding the ongoing issue. India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Alok Prasad, has had a few important meetings, including one with President Rajapaksa, in which he reiterated New Delhi’s concerns, served on the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner in Delhi by National Security Adviser M.K.Narayanan. Prasad also called on Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and conveyed New Delhi’s ‘grave concern’ about the humanitarian crisis by the ongoing clashes between the government forces and the LTTE.

Moreover, a day after Pranab Mukherjee said that India would do everything in its power to save innocent Tamilians facing the brunt of the Lankan offensive against the LTTE; Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon summoned Sri Lanka’s Envoy C.R.Jayasinghe and expressed anxiety over Tamil civilians’ plight.

The continuing clashes have delivered a severe blow to a large number of the internally displaced. According to reports in the Hindu, the United Nations is fortunately not deterred by the fact that the 50-truck World Food Programme convoy was forced off the route after a dangerously close exchange of heavy fire across the A9 route. In a statement, it said that a second attempt would be made to send a convoy of food to the civilians displaced, behind the lines of confrontation in the north. At the same time adding that it has received “renewed assurances from both parties to the conflict” that the convoy would be able to proceed unhindered. The trucks were carrying about 750 tonnes of food for an estimated 2,30,000 displaced civilians.

While India tries to play safe in its response towards the evolving situation in Sri Lanka, the Lanka Defence Ministry reports that the LTTE is making a desperate attempt to retain its last major foothold, on the north-western coast of the island, which “is their lifeline across the Palk Strait.” This apart, there are signs that President Rajapaksa will, very soon, be sending a high-level delegation to New Delhi to discuss with the UPA government the issues raised and their response.

Till then, in an important development, symptomatic of the much-touted “re-emergence of Russia”, the Lankan Defence Ministry has claimed “Russia having endorsed its measures against terrorism,” obviously drawing comparisons to the action taken by Russia against the “Chechen terrorists”. ---INFA