COLOMBO, Nov. 29, Renter: India is in danger of being sucked into a prolonged and ‘costly guerrilla war in Sri Lanka in defence of its role as a regional ‘superpower, many Colombo based diplomats and military analysts say,

But Indian Prime Minister RaJiy Gandhi remains determined to crush the Tamil Tiger fighters India spent 3 1/2 years fostering, believing that both India’s own interests and regional security are at stake,

India is adamant that it is not ‘getting bogged down in a Vietnam type war.

But Western military analysts say that although the northern stronghold of Jaffna has been largely subdued, India’s 20,000 troops in the north and east of Sri Lanka face a long and frustrating battle against guerrillas used to jungle warfare and who have the help of the local population.

“We have taken on the fourth largest army in the world face-to-face in Jaffna and we are still strong”, says “Jeyam”, a district military commander of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) in the northern town of Vavuniya.

“We still have our men in the Jaffna peninsula even though the Indians say they control the area. ‘We faced the Indian army head-on in the battle for Jaffna (city),

“Now we are more spread out and the Indians will face more of a ‘guerrilla style war,” he said in an interview in a deserted farm house guarded by half a dozen Sarong clad guerrillas cradling Hungarian made AK47S and USM16 assault rifles.

Indian troops, backed by helicopters, are fighting along a 500km (300 miles) front, stretching from Jaffna in the north to the former holiday resort of Potuvil in the Southeast after ending a brief ceasefire, saying the LTTE’s conditions for peace are unacceptable.

‘Many hardline members of Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhalese community believe India is here to slay, pointing to Indian assertions that it will not allow other powers to gain a foothold,

Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, Nat war told Parliament in New Delhi it ‘was not in India’s interests for ‘Sri Lanka to become a cockpit of superpower rivalry or rivalry among other countries, or if countries not friendly to India were to get a stronghold there”

India was concerned about the use of Israeli intelligence in him to train the Sri Lankan military and the possibility that the strategic east coast port of Trincomalee could be used by an unfriendly power.

It was also worried by Pakistan’s involvement in training some Sri Lankan army officers, and the possibility that a voice of America transmitter in Sri Lanka could be used for intelligence gathering purposes.

These fears were listed in an agreement signed by Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Junius Jayewardene in July which spelled out that “Trincomalee or any other port in Sri Lanka will not be made available for military use by any country in a manner prejudicial to India’s interests”

It also said that Jayewardene and Gandhi would reach “an early understanding about the relevance and employment of foreign military and intelligence personnel with a view to ensuring that such presences will not prejudice in do Sri Lankan relations”.

Moscow, an ally of India, has underlined the importance of the clause on Trincomalee, which it believes is being eyed by the United States as a possible base,

Tamil civilian leaders interviewed in Vavuniya, 225 kms (140 miles) northeast of Col‘ombo, said they now believe that India, who they originally saw as their protector, had interviewed primarily for its own security considerations. India has a large Tamil population of its own.

“We thought they had come to save the Tamils”, said S.V. Para rajas Ingham, President of the Vavuniya District Citizens’ Committee,

“Now it looks like they are here to establish regional supremacy. I don’t think they’ll go in a hurry”.

‘Anura Bandaranaike, Parliamentary leader of the Opposition freedom party, said he opposed the government’s plans to grant limited autonomy to the Tamils in the North and East as envisaged in the peace pact with New Delhi, asserting that Sri Lanka had become a pawn of India.

He said that while they constituted just 13 per cent of the population, the Tamils would control one third of the Island and 60 per cent of its coastline. He warned Jayewardene during a debate in Parliament he may find it difficult to get the Indians to leave.

The pact has sparked a strong backlash among Sinhalese extremists in this country of 16 million people. They argue their religion of Buddhism is threatened by the Hindu Tamils, and the island will be split in two. Even relatively moderate Tam: ‘say they suffer discrimination in terms of jobs and language and ‘want control over what they see as their “traditional homeland” in the north and east.

Jayewardene, the 81yearold President who has ruled the country for the past 10 years, sees the solution in terms of a system of provincial councils, giving the Tamils a greater say in running their own affairs,

He has taken care to ensure that ports, including Trincomalee and airports will remain under the control of the central government, and says he favors a friendship treaty with India to allay lingering, suspicions between them.

Sri Lankan leaders remain annoyed that India spent so long aiding the LTTE and for shouting “genocide” when Sri Lankan forces tried to take on the Tigers.

Prime Minister Ranasinghe Perm das told Parliament in Col‘ombo the President “was aware ‘who was responsible for making the children of the north disobedient”

Gandhi complained that the LTTE had gone back on an agreement which would have brought peace to the island after four years of bloodshed which has cost more than two billion dollars and 7,000 lives.

He accused the Tigers of flouting “every norm of civilized behayiour, coercing old men, women and children to act as shields. Using innocent children as human bombs, murdering prisoners and booby-trapping houses….”

“Premier Gandhi earns the rare distinction of having painted the truest ever picture of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam”, responded Sarath Premadas, political commentator for the Sri Lankan Sunday newspaper, Weekend.

“If only the Indian rulers had this clarity of vision just four years back, Sri Lanka could still have been the paradise that it once

Was.

Article extracted from this publication >>  December 4, 1987