India concerned over attempts to appease terrorists of Sri Lanka

New Delhi. India's ministry of external affairs is learnt to have rented all conference halls in New Delhi for an indefinite period. Indian diplomats from all capitals are being summoned for multiple conferences. The main agenda will be to deliberate on Asia's longest-running civil war in Sri Lanka, which may be nearing its end.

It was a curt statement by Robert Wood, acting spokesman of the US State Department, demanding “immediate end to the hostilities” that triggered the frenzy of diplomatic activity. The stern statement by US comes close on the heels of the European Union’s endorsement of the latest cease fire offer from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The offer from the designated terrorist organisation – the only one in the world possessing its own fledgling Air Force – followed a daring suicide attack on Colombo. 'Black Air Tigers', wearing cyanide-capsule pendants, flew the full length of Sri Lanka to expose its vulnerability before crashing two planes in the capital.

When asked for his comments, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, “There should be no compromise with terrorist organisations like the Taliban. Islamabad's deal with Taliban is a matter of concern.” When reminded that it was Northern Sri Lanka that was under the discussion and not the Swat Valley, the minister retorted, “What difference does it make? Moreover, I am Finance Minister again after a long gap of 25 years and have to concentrate on economy (of words).”

Mr. Mukherjee informed that India will provide radars and technicians to Sri Lankan Air Force to crush the terrorists. Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon explained the rationale behind the step as being a part of India’s foreign policy, which always favored establishments over rebels, and favored crushing any rebellion with force.

He cited the example of the strong backing India gave till the last moment to King Gyanendra’s regime in Kathmandu, which the Maoists led by Prachanda ousted last year. Same was the case with Kabul in 1996, he said. President Najibullah had the full fledged support of New Delhi till the moment he was hanged in a street corner. His wife and three daughters were even provided asylum.

New Delhi has promised to Colombo the same type of support. On the face of it, the Sri Lankan government has been maintaining that the rebellion has been “almost finished”. President Rajapakse has even planned to open concentration camps for the 2 lakh Tamils. They have been herded, through aerial bombing and heavy artillery, into a small corner and are awaiting final assault. But LTTE has declared that they will keep fighting for Tamils.

The EU has stressed that the conflict could not be resolved by military means, adding that the military defeat of LTTE may lead to an uncontrollable humanitarian crisis. That may lead to non-conventional strikes from air and sea that may be even more deadly than Mumbai terror attacks. But India begs to differ. Pranab Mukherjee has assured Sri Lanka on being provided intelligence inputs to deal with such eventualities as India has now become an expert in receiving such attacks. Mukherjee insisted that LTTE must lay down their arms.

New Delhi feels LTTE is not justified in completely ignoring the emerging superpower in the neighbourhood and instead addressing its offer to countries like US, EU, Japan and Norway, with a copy of it to Reuters. An MEA spokesperson regretted that not a single neighbor of India was mature enough to appreciate its foreign policy based on Nehru doctrine.

To deal with this lack of maturity among the neighbors, the government was organizing multiple conferences. After the series of workshops and briefings next month, IFS honchos will return to their embassies and mount a campaign to educate the respective governments on how to deal with rebels and unfriendly minorities.

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