New book reveals India’s ‘hidden hand’ in Sri Lanka war
August 22nd, 2009 - 3:04 pm ICT by IANS ( 3 comments )New Delhi, Aug 22 (IANS) India played a critical, albeit covert, role in the success of Sri Lanka’s war against the Tamil Tigers, with the Indian Navy providing vital intelligence in locating and destroying at least a dozen LTTE rogue vessels laden with arms, says the first such detailed account of the operation.
India’s covert support to Sri Lanka in the war against the LTTE assumed many forms, ranging from back-channel talks and a tacit endorsement of Colombo’s destroy-LTTE mission to supply of military hardware and sharing of real-time intelligence, says Nitin A. Gokhale in his book “Sri Lanka - From War to Peace” (Har-Anand Publications).
New Delhi helped Colombo in myriad ways despite its public hands-off posture and denial of offensive weapons to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eeelam (LTTE) due to domestic political compulsions, contends Gokhale.
The ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in New Delhi was dependent upon the DMK party from Tamil Nadu, perceived to be sympathetic to the LTTE, for its survival in parliament.
“Publicly, India maintained that it would not give Sri Lanka any offensive weapons. Yet, in early 2006 India quietly gifted five Mi-17 helicopters to the Sri Lankan Air Force,” Gokhale writes. “The only Indian condition was: these helicopters would fly under Sri Lankan Air Force colours. New Delhi clearly did not want to annoy UPA’s Tamil Nadu allies like the DMK unnecessarily,” he says.
The author singles out the Indian Navy for special praise. The Indian Coast Guard gifted a Sukanya Class offshore patrol vessel (OPV) to the Sri Lankan Navy in 2002, which played a major role in several daring missions launched by the Sri Lankan Air Force to rescue the Army’s Deep Penetration Units when they were surrounded by LTTE’s counter-infiltration units.
The OPVs also helped when injured soldiers had to be airlifted from deep inside LTTE-held territory.
The author quotes Sri Lanka’s Navy Chief Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda to underline the Indian Navy’s contribution in locating and destroying at least 10 ‘floating warehouses’ owned and used by the LTTE for storing arms, ammunition and even armoured personnel carriers.
According to Indian and Sri Lankan Navy sources quoted by the author in his book, well-coordinated operations by the two navies between 2006 and 2009 actually broke the backbone of the LTTE’s Sea Tigers.
Intelligence-sharing also proved crucial. The Indian Navy’s Dorniers, fitted with powerful radars, based at Ramnad in Tamil Nadu flew regular reconnaissance missions over the seas around Sri Lanka.
“Whenever a suspicious ship was detected, the Indian Navy passed on the information to the Sri Lankans. The real time intelligence helped Sri Lankan Navy to track and then destroy the LTTE arms consignments,” says Gokhale, who covered the last phase of Sri Lanka’s battle against Tamil Tigers for NDTV.
The book also recounts vividly the last days of LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran, who pioneered the cult of suicide bombers and tormented the Sri Lankan state and people for three decades.
Ordering the assassination of former prime minister of India Rajiv Gandhi proved to be a major strategic error on the part of the charismatic guerrilla leader, the author writes.
Gokhale also provides an insight into the Sri Lankan government’s winning strategy for the decimation of the LTTE that ended Asia’s longest-running insurgency.
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Tags: deep penetration, dmk party, gokhale, har, indian navy, liberation tigers, military hardware, offensive weapons, opv, patrol vessel, political compulsions, progressive alliance, public hands, sri lankan air, sri lankan air force, sri lankan navy, tacit endorsement, tamil tigers, time intelligence, vital intelligence
August 22nd, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Seek Wiseman’s Hand
India is Sri Lanka’s loving and caring brother. India’s devoted and trusted sibling always grateful immensely for all assistance given at the time of Need.
Namo! Namo! SRI BHARATH!
August 24th, 2009 at 3:03 am
GoSL has already endorsed India’s assistance,by saying “GOSL fought India’s war”.
November 17th, 2009 at 2:26 am
The recent Indian collusion in Srilankan war crime is not a surprise. The Indian (North Indian) politics has shown in its decades of politics in the region a below zero social righteousness record except for the emergence of Independent Political Order for Bangladesh. To do a great thing in life you need the guts and a strong belief in the greater righteousness for the people, not the brains. Indian foreign politics today characterizes itself by its shameful and immoral ways of dangling in neighbouring countries to bring about political instability. A good example is Indian collusion in Srilankan war in eliminating the so called terrorists LTTE. The great nation India, where the father of non-violence movement Mahatma Gandhi was born, lowered itself to an immoral level of abject disgrace and repudiation by providing the chauvinistic government of Srilanka with military
and intelligence logistics. This was in direct contravention of the independent identity of more than 65 millions of Tamils living in its own Tamil Nadu State. You never achieve anything great in politics by turning against your own people’s identity. Blinded by lust for power and position, the architects in Indian defence have made a grave blunder which they will realize soon. Time is creeping in.
One reason for the present combative race to exert power in the region is the propelling need for the exploitation of every chance for economic and personal enrichment. This does not give room for seeking for a balance between theory and practice. When the war on eliminating LTTE was at its worst in the beginning of 2009 in killing more than 30,000 innocent unarmed Tamils and displacing hundreds of thousands exposed to the worst living conditions, the ruling Indian government Congress President Mrs Sonia Gandhi kept silence by further indirectly instigating the ongoing murder of Srilanka Tamils. She could have changed situation to a more palatable status by restraining the Indian forces from abetting the murder regime of Srilankan government.
The political evolution in coming months will show her the way her party has adopted and the blunders she has committed by aligning her government with Srilanka as a war crime abettor. Everything that goes around bounces back with its own results. A result of an action always creeps to hang on to the initiator of the action. This is the law of the Nature. This is the lesson that Mahatma Gandhi showed the world by his non-violence movement while he was alive.
To counter Indian hegemony, the great economic power China has to come forward in agitating splinter movements like Maoists in Indian, LTTE of Srilanka and other small groups in other Indian neighbouring countries against India. Unless and until the Union of India is disintegrated into such a level that former USSR has dwindled to a single Russia today, the Indian encroachment into other countries will continue unabated. China has to get involved in Asian politics more deeply to build a counter Indian strategy to keep a vigil over Indian aggression. Change the world map replacing the ‘Indian Ocean’ by ‘China Ocean’.
Sirlankan government is a party of hooligans, thugs and criminals. Srilankan government today is neither ruled by the laws nor does it honour the international laws and conventions. State Terrorism in Srilanka is the tool whereby it terrorizes its own citizens. Impose a total ban on Srilankan export goods, expunge Srilanka from the Commonwealth Status, screen tightly Srilankan embassy staff in foreign posts, freeze their foreign accounts if shady account movements are detected, limit embassy visa to a minimum service wherever applicable, and limit cross boarder movements of the embassy staff to prevent possible involvement in state supported violence.
The blood spilled by killing the innocent unarmed Tamils will surely pave the way for the independent homeland for the Srilankan Tamils. No force in the world can deter it. It is the expression of mass consciousness struggling for its own realization.
I clearly defined the meaning of addressing India as North India. When I referred to India as North India, it automatically excludes South India. The plight of innocent and unarmed Sri Lankan Tamils is the result of Indian, Chinese, and Pakistan collusion with Sri Lanka. The LTTE withstood the military manoeuvres and combative strategies of Sri Lankan army all by itself. After the Indian and Chinese provision of sophisticated radar systems and other reconnaissance outfits to Sri Lankan army, the LTTE could not survive any more than perish in the combat with Sri Lankan army.
History would have been different from what the world see today if India had not got involved militarily in the Sri Lankan war with LTTE.
Encroaching on the sovereignty of other neighbouring countries in order to realize its influence over the region has been the policy of architects of Indian foreign policy.
India has already realized its folly in supporting Sri Lankan government. An interesting event still to unfold soon will teach the blindfolded Indian politicians a meaningful wisdom. India is regarded as the land of cultural wisdom and religious transcendence. What a shame that it has joined the long list of other countries like Iraq, China, Pakistan, Libya, Iran where human rights are not honoured!
In line with the recent publication of an article by a well-known Chinese columnist the disintegration of Union of India is the only solution to the encroachment policy India adopts time and again. India is no match for China either economically or militarily. The only hope for other small independent countries to survive is to see the Union of India disintegrated into small principalities. This will happen anyway.
Nothing in life ever goes unanswered. Tamils will never forgive Indian (North Indian)connivance at creating a terrible plight for the innocent Sri Lankan Tamils.
As long as the psyche in Sri Lankan Tamils’ sub-consciousness is aflame with the aspiration for the independent homeland for the Sri Lankan Tamils, no force in the world can sniff it out.