The Dilemma of the US: The LTTE and the
Buddhist Ayatollahs
By Professor Saveri Amuthaputhiran -
University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka
From the oppressed Tamil perspective the US Ambassador’s admonitions
this week were as intimidating and threatening as the warning issued in
August 1995 by a visiting UNDP representative in Jaffna to the Tamil
civilians that the US will support the Sinhala military’s assault to conquer
Jaffna. To the Sinhala officialdom this would have tasted sweeter than
kithul honey. With callous disregard to the horrors unleashed in the past
two weeks in the North and East of the island by the Sinhala militray in the
form of cordon and search operations, gang rapes, arbitrary arrests,
torture and disappearances, the well-informed Ambassador has chosen to
turn a blind eye to the military terrorism engulfing the densely populated
Tamil cities.
The Ambassador deliberately aimed his words at more than 80 million
Tamils living across the world from South Africa to Norway including many
South East Asian countries and in that he knows that majority of them are
sympathetic to the Tamil Eelam struggle for separation. We therefore make
a great effort to understand why the US representative is expressing his
open antagonism to the 80 million strong, world’s Tamil communities in
order to gain a foothold in Sri Lanka. Let us look at the recent history.
In June 1984, following the visit of J.R. Jayewardene to Washington, the U.
S. used Israel as a proxy to provide military aid to Sri Lanka, in return the
Jayewardene government granted limited diplomatic recognition to the
Israeli State. The US also used South Africa under President Botha’s
government as a proxy to supply arms and ammunitions to Sri Lanka. “The
US derived direct advantages in return for these various services. Its navy
was permitted rest and recreation facilities in Ceylon’s ports. The giant
American aircraft carrier kittyhawk visited Colombo harbour for four days in
November 1985 to check on the installations available for large warships.
The US also obtained 1000 acres of land north of Colombo to establish
Voice of America Station to be the largest of its size outside the US. (for
more on this se. A.J. Wilson, Break-Up of Sri Lanka, p. 200ff.) The JVP
which is now welcoming American intervention was up in arms then.
Even three years ago Colombo news papers reported on March 21, 2003
“Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Colombo, after Friday's
Jummah prayers, protesting the US-led war on Iraq. Government and
opposition parliamentarians, including those from the Janata Vimukti
Peramuna, took part in the protest, sources said.
They were carrying the anti-American placards. After prayer at the
Dawataga Palliya Mosque near Town Hall in Colombo, protestors carrying
anti-US banners and shouting slogans marched to Lipton Square. They
burnt US flags at Lipton Square and marched toward the Maligawatta
Mosque, the sources said. Parliamentarians from the Sri Lanka Fredom
Party (SLFP), the Janta Vimukti Peramuna (JVP) and the Sri Lanka Muslim
Congress (SLMC) participated in the protests. Participants included
Mangala Samaraweera and M.A. Hisabulla of the SLFP, Wimal
Weerawansa, Bimal Rathnayaka and Vijitha Herath of the JVP, Noordeen
Mashoor of the SLMC and Western Provincial Governor Mr. Alavi
Moulana.” Now the US Ambassador to Colombo must do his home work to
identify that those who are with him are truly against his country.
Now the Ambassador must understand that neither the Tamils nor the
LTTE is fighting a nation, a people or a government. They are fighting an
ideology based on ‘one land, one faith, one language and one rule.’ This
ideology reduces the other as an unwanted, secondary alien; a mere
cannon fodder. The Tamils are therefore fighting for dignity and self-
respect, for freedom and justice. They also know that all weapons including
nuclear ones supplied by the US can kill them. But in the end they will have
Tamils’ dead bodies not their dignity and respect.
It may be of interest to the US Ambassador to know that the very first
political assassination of a prime minister in office in South Asia took place
in Sri Lanka. It was not committed by a terrorist or by any designated
member of a terrorist group. It was meticulously planned and executed by a
Buddhist chief priest of an Episcopal rank in (Thero) 1959. The Buddhist
Sangha was not added to the terrorist list. It will never be. The monk who
killed S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike was sent to the gallows. He was killed
because he wanted to amend the follies he made to the Tamil community
through a process of reconciliation. Today Buddocracy has replaced
democracy in Sri Lanka. The buddocratic political rigour of the Buddhist
monks is far more chauvinistic than the combined theocratic allegiance of
the former Taliban and the post-Shaw Iran with the Ayatollahs. Now for the
rest I will quote verbatim some extracts of K. Ratnayake’s article “Sri
Lankan foreign minister discusses war, not peace, in Washington.:
The direction in which the Bush administration is leaning is unmistakable.
To "laud" the Colombo government for its "restraint," even as the Sri
Lankan security forces are engaged in attacks, murders and repression, is
only to encourage Rajapakse, the military and Sinhala extremists to go
further. Rice's remarks come in the wake of a meeting last month of the co-
chairs of the Sri Lankan donors group-the US, the EU, Japan and Norway-
which showed a similar bias. Its statement urged the LTTE to "put an end
to its ongoing campaign of violence" and warned of "serious
consequences" if it failed to do so.
The Bush administration is no more committed to "peace" in Sri Lanka than
it is in Iraq or Afghanistan. Having largely ignored the brutal 20-year civil
war on the island, Washington only wants it ended now because the
conflict threatens to destabilise a region in which US strategic and
economic interests are growing. Not only is India an expanding source of
cheap labour for American corporations but South Asia is adjacent to the
key resource-rich regions of the Middle East and Central Asia.
The Bush administration has been fostering a close relationship with India-
a fact that was reflected in Rice's remarks last Friday. She told the media:
"The whole South Asia region I expect to be very high on my list of
priorities. Enhancing the relationship with India
will be extremely important." President Bush is planning to visit India later
this year.US support for the so-called peace process in Sri Lanka has
always been a purely tactical means for gaining its ends. While US
diplomats have insisted on the resumption of peace talks, there has been
a steady stream of top US military officers through Colombo to enhance
"cooperation" between the two countries. The Pentagon seized the
opportunity following the 2004 tsunami to dispatch US troops for the first
time to Sri Lanka, creating a precedent for future US military involvement in
the island's affairs.
At present, with the US military embroiled in a quagmire in Iraq, the Bush
administration is not in a strong position to plunge into a civil war in Sri
Lanka. Nevertheless, as the island slides back to war, US officials are
obviously in the process of calculating their response. By turning a blind
eye to the Sri Lankan military's provocations and berating the LTTE, Rice
is adding more inflammable material to what is already an explosive
situation.Rajapakse appears to have quickly worked out which way the
wind is blowing in Washington. Last weekend he seized on the sinking of
the naval vessel to markedly toughen his stance toward the LTTE. "It is a
great mistake if anyone thinks that our decisions can be altered by means
of terror. The LTTE should realise that we are not deaf and blind. If they
think so, the time has come for them to give up such thoughts," he
declared. Back to what the Ambassador said: "We want to make it clear.
The LTTE will face a stronger, more capable and more determined Sri
Lankan military. We want the cost of a return to war to be high," he said.
This is not the language of peace but of war. [TC]
