The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fighting for a separate "Tamil Eelam" in North East Sri Lanka, are "concerned" about the growing political, financial and military influence of the United States in Sri Lanka, according to a knowledgeable Tamil source close to the LTTE.
Though the LTTE itself has kept a discrete silence about the worry, it has been conveying it to the Tamils and the rest of the world, through the writings of its large, but unofficial army of Tamil and English language journalists and sections of the intelligentsia friendly to it.
In Sri Lanka, not a week passes without a Tamil newspaper lambasting the US for supporting the Sri Lankan government’s (or as they like to put it, the ‘Sinhala hegemonists’) case at the expense of the minority Tamils.
Tamil journalists, whether writing in English or Tamil, routinely note with alarm the way the US flexes its muscles though well-publicised visits of its military officials to the island.
The press also carries long articles on the way the US has used internal conflicts to gain a foothold in various countries of the Third World. The Tamils are asked to be wary about the impact of an increasing US presence in Sri Lanka on their liberation struggle.
In an article reproduced by the pro-LTTE website www.tamilcanadian.com on October 2, an LTTE acolyte, Vasantha Rajah, says: "In the late 1960s, Indonesia witnessed a ruthless murder campaign culminating in the emergence of the Suharto dictatorship. Nearly one million civilians were killed in the bloodbath, mainly members of Indonesia’s communist party. The US played an odious role during this barbaric episode, which reportedly involved discrete US funding of the death squads that were responsible for the killings."
Vasantha Rajah went to say: "Such characteristics of US politics help shed important light on the US role in Sri Lanka, in particular help explain Washington’s apparently contradictory policy of militarily backing the Sri Lanka government’s war effort against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), while calling for peace and shedding tears over the sufferings of the people."
According to the writer, the Bush Administration is creating a "climate of terror" throughout the world in order to generate conflicts everywhere, sell arms and extend US hegemony.
The Tamil intellectual view goes so far as believing that the threat from Al-Qaeda is being used by the US to extend its tentacles to every corner of the globe.
When the Sinhala-majoritarian forces in Sri Lanka talk of the importance of maintaining Sri Lanka’s "integrity", they actually mean the continuation of the present "unitary" constitution, Vasantha Rajah says. He charges the US of doing the same.
And since the LTTE will never agree to the continuation of the unitary state, war is inevitable, he predicts. "It is na`D4ve to suppose that the US is ignorant of these realities," he adds.
According to him, the continuation of the conflict and the onset of war will be welcomed by the US because it can sell arms to Sri Lanka.
Writing in a newspaper report on September 29, the well known Tamil journalist, Taraki, argues that it will be wrong to think that the US is not interested in Sri Lanka because the island has no strategic resources like oil.
Taraki quotes an article by Lt Col Roy C Howle in the US War College journal "Parameters" in 2001, to say that the US wants to advantageously position its military power in all strategically important parts of the world so that the balance of power in each region invariably and overwhelmingly will be on its side.
"This would preclude the rise of any global hegemon like the USSR in the future, and help the US ‘over determine’ the course of world affairs by being in a position to effectively project its power in every nook and cranny of this planet. The US government’s strategic interests in Sri Lanka are intertwined with its military objectives in South Asia and Asia," Taraki says.
He quotes a RAND corporation study entitled: "US and Asia: Towards a New Posture" which advocates an "access strategy" to provide increased opportunities for the deployment of US forces.
The study says that the present US base in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, is too far from key South Asian centres like New Delhi and Islamabad, and has advocated the seeking of more bases.
Taraki says that the war in Sri Lanka provides the US good opportunities to get access facilities in the island. The US government has been pressing Colombo to enter into a "cross-servicing agreement" (ACSA) with it, to provide facilities on a supposedly mutual basis. But New Delhi’s opposition has prevented Colombo from falling in line so far.
(Hindustan Times)
