SRI LANKA: Govt Strengthens Hand Ahead of Peace Talks

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, May 31 2002 (IPS) - Sri Lanka’s plans to strike a seemingly harmless military pact with the United States and hand over a partly abandoned oil storage facility to India has brought a new dimension not only to the country’s peace process but also to South Asian politics, analysts say.

By resorting to these steps, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe also put a spanner in the works of nationalist and anti-peace forces and for the first time in 20 years made sure the ruling party negotiates with Tamil rebels from a position of strength.

Both moves are seen as deterring Tamil rebel interests in Trincomalee as the U.S.-Sri Lanka deal is perceived as a step towards even military cooperation – like supply of military hardware or training of men – if the ceasefire collapses and the war erupts once again.

“The oil tanks and the U.S. deal are strategic moves as it protects the eastern port city of Trincomalee from Tamil Tiger guerrillas and provides military support from the United States (in case war breaks out). But it could have other ramifications in the global context,” noted Jehan Perera, a political commentator and noted peace activist.

Last week the government announced it was leasing out the partly-abandoned oil storage facility at Trincomalee to the state-run Indian Oil Corp (IOC) in addition to selling it 100 fuel stations owned by the state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corp.

Earlier, newspapers reported a planned agreement between Colombo and Washington to allow U.S. military aircraft and ships to be refueled in Sri Lanka. There has been no official statement from either side.

U.S. embassy spokesman Stephen Holgate was quoted in newspapers as saying that there were no plans to establish military bases under the proposed Acquisitions and Cross Servicing Agreement. “This is the kind of agreement we have with scores of countries across the world,” he was quoted as saying, downplaying its importance.

He said the proposed agreement would allow planes and ships of each nation to go to the other nation for refueling, minor servicing and repairs at cost or payment in kind.

Analysts read many implications in the “payment in kind” issue, saying the United States could provide military hardware to Sri Lanka as payment for services.

Recent visits by U.S. warships for refueling purposes here has triggered speculation that U.S. forces may support government troops if fighting resumes, particularly after Washington’s role in stamping out terrorism following the Sep. 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre towers and the Pentagon.

Most people believe the government has through this move secured an insurance policy in case peace talks fail.

“It allows the government to address southern concerns of Trincomalee falling into the hands of the rebels and backup from the United States in case of a flareup,” noted Keethish Loganathan, a political analyst and head of the conflict and peace analysis unit at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo-based think tank. “I don’t see any immediate negatives from this move but in the long term, who knows.”

The proposed agreement also allows IOC and the Indian government to use its own “security” to protect the oil farm. While the definition of “security” is unclear, some analysts say this could even imply Indian troops. Though the oil farm may not be a profitable operation for the Indian oil firm, it serves India’s long-term regional interests to secure a foothold in the eastern port city.

For long, Trincomalee has been eyed by regional and global superpowers like the United States because of its strategic location on the main shipping lanes. It has one of the few natural, deep seawater harbours in Asia and an ideal base for military ships in this region.

The 99 oil tanks built by the British during colonial rule sited close to the harbour have been part of a struggle between the Russians and the United States during the cold war.

When a U.S.-led consortium based in Singapore was about to lease the oil farm in the 1980s, India protested to the government saying it would be used by U.S. ships for military purposes and was a threat to the Russian-backed New Delhi administration.

The deal was called off but Trincomalee figured once again when the infamous Indo-Lanka peace pact was signed between Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lankan President Junius Jayewardene in 1987.

That agreement stated that Trincomalee or any port in Sri Lanka would not be made available for military use in a manner that is prejudicial to India’s interests. It also noted that the work of restoring and operating the oil tank farm would be undertaken as a joint venture between India and Sri Lanka.

That pact failed because it led to Indian troops being bogged down in an unsuccessful war against the rebels, who initially accepted the pact and agreed to hand over their weapons but then reneged on the deal. The Indians returned home after losing scores of men in the battle.

Wickremasinghe, a senior minister in Jayewardene’s United National Party government then, has now sought to revive the pact by handing over the storage facility to the Indians, turning a new page in the geo-politics of the region.

With the end of the cold war, the United States and India are friends and only last week completed joint military exercises for the first time in 33 years. The one-time foes have come together to help out Sri Lanka and provide some insurance to Wickremasinghe’s government’s in case peace talks fail.

Dr Jayadeva Uyangoda, a political scientist attached to the Colombo University, believes the ruling United National Party government, which won power in last December’s parliamentary polls, has handled the peace process well by quickly bringing in the international community into the picture.

“It makes it more tricky now for the rebels or even the government to pull out of the process. The international community is playing a much bigger role than before in the peace process,” he said. Norway says it has expanded its role in the process to that of a mediator from being a facilitator for the past two years.

The government has lifted an economic embargo on the war-torn north, opened up roads closed for years for security reasons and cleared many bottlenecks ahead of peace talks due to begin in Thailand in mid-June.

Prime Minister Wickremasinghe is now visiting London and Brussels to enlist international cooperation for the peace process, and has scheduled a visit to the United States later this year on a similar mission.

Some 64,000 people have died in the rebel campaign for a separate state.

Most analysts believe the government need not fear that devolving power to Tamil-dominated areas would lead to separation since India has a presence in Trincomalee.

While the double-whammy last week is bound to annoy the Tamil Tigers, it gives Wickremasinghe a lot of leverage and the government the luxury of being generous in devolving powers to the Tamil minority community.