[dehai-news] (Global Research) Great Power Confrontation in the Indian Ocean: The Geo-Politics of the Sri Lankan Civil War


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From: wolda002@umn.edu
Date: Tue Nov 03 2009 - 23:25:36 EST


Great Power Confrontation in the Indian Ocean: The Geo-Politics of the Sri
Lankan Civil War

By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
 
Global Research, October 23, 2009

The support and positions of various foreign governments in regards to the
diabolic fighting between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan military,
which cost the lives of thousands of innocent civilians, says a great deal
about the geo-strategic interests of these foreign governments. The
position of the governments of India and a group of states that can
collectively be called the Periphery, such as the U.S. and Australia, were
in support of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) or Tamil Tigers,
either overtly or covertly. Many of these governments also provided this
support tacitly, so as not to close any future opportunity of co-opting Sri
Lanka after the fighting was over.

In contrast, the governments of a group of states that can jointly be
called Eurasia as a collective entity, such as Iran and Russia, supported
the Sri Lankan government. The polar nature of the support by Eurasia and
the Periphery for the two different combating sides in the Sri Lankan Civil
War betrays the scent or odour of a much broader struggle. This is a
struugle that extends far beyond the borders of the island of Sri Lanka and
its region.

Why is this so? Much of the answer to such a question has to do with the
formation of a growing alliance in the Eurasian landmass against the
international domination of the U.S. and its allies. This Eurasian alliance
was formed on the basis of the growing cohesion between Moscow, Tehran,
Beijing, and their allies that has seen the animation of the Primakov
Doctrine. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a security body with
real military dimensions that has been called “the NATO of the East”
within some foreign policy circles is a real symbol of this geo-political
dynamic. In 2009, the last chapter of the Sri Lankan Civil War was very
much a theatre within this process.

Enter the Chinese Dragon: The start of Sri Lankan Estrangement from the
U.S. and India

2007 was a milestone year for Sri Lanka. On March 12, 2007, Colombo agreed
to allow the Chinese to build a massive naval port on its territory, at
Hambantota. An agreement on the construction of the port was finalized and
signed by the Sri Lankan Port Authority with two Chinese companies, the
China Harbor Engineering Company and the Sino Hydo Corporation. [1] The Sri
Lankan government’s decision was mostly formed on the basis of economic
benefits and Chinese support to end the fighting on their island.

What followed was the estrangement of Sri Lanka from the U.S. and India. It
has been a U.S. policy to encircle China and to prevent it from building
any ports or bases outside of Chinese territory. As a result, the U.S.
shortly cut its military assistance to the Sri Lankan military. [2] Indian
support for the Tamil Tigers also increased through pressure on Colombo to
make Sri Lanka a federal state with autonomy for the Tamils. Beijing threw
its political weight behind Colombo and also began sending large arms
shipments to Sri Lanka. As an additional comparison, Chinese aid to Sri
Lanka in 2008 was about a billion U.S. dollars, while U.S. aid was only 7.4
million U.S. dollars. [3]

It is from 2007 onward that Sri Lanka became a part of the alliance in
Eurasia through its agreement with China and its subsequent estrangement
from the U.S. and India. By the end of 2007, Sri Lanka had entrenched
itself in the geo-strategic trenches with Russia, Iran, and China. These
reasons and not humanitarian concern(s) are the primary rationale for
support provided, in one way or another, to the Tamil Tigers by the
governments of India, the U.S., Britain, Japan, Australia, Canada, and the
European Union.

Sri Lankan Military ties to the Moscow-Beijing-Tehran Axis

Chinese military ties with Sri Lanka started in the 1990s, but it was in
2007 that Chinese and Sri Lankan military relations started to flower.
According to Brahma Chellaney of the Centre for Policy Research in New
Delhi, India: “China’s arms sales [were] the decisive factor in ending
the military stalemate [in the Sri Lankan Civil War.]” [4] In April, just
one month after the 2007 agreement between the Sri Lankan Port Authority
and both the China Harbor Engineering Company and the Sino Hydo
Corporation, China signed a major ammunition and ordnance deal with the Sri
Lankan military. [5] Beijing also transferred, free of charge, several
military jets to the Sri Lankan military, which were decisive in defeating
the Tamil Tigers. [6]

Iran and Russia also began to rapidly develop their military ties with Sri
Lanka after Colombo agreed to host the Chinese port in Hambantota. In this
regard, Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran all have cooperation and military
agreements with Sri Lanka. The visits of Sri Lankan leaders and military
officials to Tehran, Moscow, and Beijing in 2007 and 2008 were all tied to
Sri Lankan preparations to militarily disarm the Tamil Tigers with the help
of these Eurasian states.

China, Russia, and Iran all ultimately helped arm the Sri Lankan military
before the last phase of the Sri Lankan Civil War. For the Eurasian
alliance the aim of ending the Sri Lankan Civil War was to ensure the
materialization of the Chinese port and to prevent any possibility of
regime change in Colombo, which would ensure the continuity of a Sri Lankan
government allied to China, Russia, and Iran. Along with Sri Lankan
officials, the governments of Iran, Russia, and China believed that unless
the Tamil Tigers were neutralized as a threat that the U.S. and its allies,
in possible league with India, could make attempts to overthrow the Sri
Lankan government in order to nullify the Sri Lankan naval port agreement
with China and to remove Sri Lanka from the orbit of Eurasia. In this
context, they all threw their weight behind Sri Lanka during the fighting
in 2009 and in the case of China and Russia at the U.N. Security Council.

Associated Press (AP) reported on December 23, 2007:

In the wake of the United States Senate slashing military assistance to Sri
Lanka, the Russian Federation has stepped in to fill the vacuum, sending
the first ever top level military delegation to Colombo to discuss military
cooperation. A high level Russian military delegation led by
[Colonel-General] Vladimir Moltenskoy last week met Defence Secretary
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Army Commander [Lieutenant-General] Sarath Fonseka and
Air Force Commander, Roshan Goonathilake and had visited several major
military installations in the island. [Colonel-General] Molpenskoy, a
veteran combat General in the Russian Army was formerly the operational
commander of the Russian Forces in Chechnya. [7]

The Russian Federation, China, and Iran also all face their own separatist
movements like Sri Lanka. All four nations see these movements as being
supported by outside players for geo-strategic reasons. In 2007, not only
did Moscow, like China, move in to fill the vacuum of military supplies
left by the U.S. government after Sri Lanka agreed to build the Chinese
naval port; the Kremlin also sent Colonel-General Vladimir Moltenskoy who
oversaw the Russian military campaign against the separatist movement in
Chechnya. Moltenskoy arrived in Sri Lanka as a military advisor to Colombo.
 
The aid of Tehran was also crucial for the Sri Lankan military. The Island,
a Sri Lankan news source reported: “Iran had come to Sri Lanka’s rescue
(...) when an LTTE [or Tamil Tiger] offensive had threatened to overwhelm
the [Sri Lankan] army in Jaffna [P]eninsula. Sources said that several
plane loads of Iranian [military] equipment were made available immediately
after Sri Lanka sought assistance from the Iranian leadership.” [8] The
Island also reported, before the arrival of a high level Iranian military
delegation to Sri Lanka in 2009, that Iran, which is “widely believed to
[sic.; be] a leading strategist in” the use of tactical boats, and Sri
Lanka “have over the year developed strategies relating to small
[tactical] boat operations.” [9]

The extent of the help Iran, Russia, and China provided to Sri Lanka also
included economic support within the framework of the Sri Lankan military
preparations leading to the assaults on the Tamil Tigers in 2009. The Hindu
on September 21, 2009 published an article partially revealing the depth of
the level and importance of the help that Sri Lanka had been receiving from
Iran alone:

Iran has extended by another year the four-month interest-free credit
facility granted to Sri Lanka after President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit
to Iran in November 2007, state-run Daily News reported on Monday.

It said that consequent to talks with Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, the Iranian government granted the facility from January 2008
to August 31.

In 2008, Sri Lanka imported crude oil under this facility to the tune of
$1.05 billion, nearly all of its requirements, easing the pressure on the
country’s foreign exchange requirements in a year of significance for the
government’s war with the LTTE [or the Tamil Tigers].

An additional three-month credit package at a concessionary rate of
interest was also accommodated in Sri Lanka’s favour on September 3
[2009] at a meeting between the representatives of the countries in Tehran.
[10]

Chinese Naval Interests and Energy Security Concerns and Sri Lanka

Why a Chinese port in Sri Lanka? Why in Sri Lanka of all places? Sri Lanka
is situated at a vital maritime corridor in the Indian Ocean. This position
is at a vital juncture in the maritime shipping paths of the Indian Ocean
that is important for trade, security, and energy supplies. This is why
Moscow, Tehran, and Beijing stand behind Colombo.

The Chinese naval port under construction and at Hambantota is part of a
New Cold War to secure energy routes. [11] Most of the energy supplies
going to Asia pass the southern tip of Sri Lanka. It is for this reason
that the Chinese have included Sri Lanka within their project of
establishing a chain of naval bases in the Indian Ocean to protect their
energy supplies coming from the Middle East and Africa. Myanmar (Burma) is
also part of this project and in many cases the pressure on the governments
in both states is linked to their agreements to build Chinese ports with
Beijing.

In league with China, Iran also has naval ambitions in Sri Lanka and the
broader Indian Ocean as part of an initiative to protect the maritime
routes between itself and China. China and Iran have both been expanding
their naval forces. This is part of a growing trend. The seas and bodies of
water around all Eurasia from the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, the Red Sea,
the Gulf of Aden, the Persian Gulf, and the the Arabian Sea to the Bay of
Bengal, the South China Sea, and the East China Sea have all been under
heavy militarization over the years. In no point in history have the oceans
seen such large numbers of warships at one time. This militarization
process on the waves of Eurasia is ultimately tied to controlling movement
and encircling the Eurasian landmass in a coming showdown.

 

Sri Lanka enters the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)

In 2009, Sri Lanka joined the SCO, as did Belarus. The entry of Sri Lanka
into the Eurasian organization was announced at the SCO conference in
Yekaterinburg, where the light was on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad following the
election riots in Iran. While the SCO put its weight behind the re-election
of the Iranian President, Sri Lanka thanked the organization for its
collective support against the Tamil Tigers.

Both Sri Lanka and Belarus, which is also a member of the Russian-led
Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), entered the SCO as dialogue
partners. [12] The entry of Sri Lanka into the SCO as a dialogue partner
confirms its strategic ties and alliance with Russia, China, and Iran.
Dialogue partner status in the SCO puts Sri Lanka under the umbrella of
China and Russia. Although it is not spelled out in Article 14 of the SCO
Charter, a dialogue partner can request protection and defensive aid under
such a relationship. Dialogue partners are also financially tied to the
SCO, which facilitates their integration into the coming Eurasian Union
that will emerge from the cohesion of Russia, China, Iran, and their
partners.

Sri Lanka and the Broader Conflict in Eurasia

In the so-called Western World double-standards were applied to the final
chapter of the Sri Lankan Civil War. While the U.S. and its allies
supported the military actions of Georgia to secure its territorial
integrity by bringing South Ossetia and Abkhazia under its control through
force in 2008 they did not do this in regards to Sri Lanka in 2009. In
essence the actions of the Sri Lankan and Georgian governments were almost
exactly the same: establishing government control of break-away territory
through the use of military force. Yet, the reaction of the U.S. and its
allies were contrastingly different in both cases. Georgia received support
and Sri Lanka did not.

In addition, Georgia was legally obligated under international agreement
not to use any military force to solve its internal conflict, but Sri Lanka
was not. In legal terms, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, before the conflict,
also enjoyed autonomous statuses within the framework of Georgia as a
polity. This in no means justifies any of the deaths in Sri Lanka or the
fighting in Georgia, but it does illustrate that double-standards were
applied.

The reason that the U.S. and its allies supported Georgia and not Sri Lanka
is tied to the encirclement of Eurasia. If there was no Chinese port being
built in Sri Lanka or any ties between the Sri Lankan government and China
the reaction of the U.S. government would have been much different. Most
probably the American reaction would have been the same as when Israel acts
against Palestinian civilians or when Saddam Hussein, as an American ally,
gased the Iraqi Kurds.

The people of Sri Lanka from the Tamils to the Sinhalese are in the
cross-hairs of a much larger and all enveloping global struggle. In the
scenario of a possible conflict with the U.S. and the Periphery the
maritime route that passes by Sri Lanka would be vital as an energy
lifeline to the Chinese. The U.S. and its allies would ensure that this sea
route is less secure for the Chinese by taking Sri Lanka out of the orbit
of China and its allies. Even the balkanization of Sri Lanka could lead to
a Tamil state that would most likely be allied to the U.S. and India, which
may grant them military bases that would be in close proximity to Chinese
positions in Sri Lanka.
 

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research
on Globalization (CRG) specializing in geopolitics and strategic issues.
 

NOTES

[1] Sri Lankan gov’t, Chinese companies sign port building agreement,
Xinhua News Agency, March 13, 2007.

[2] US out, enter Russia, Associated Press (AP), December 23, 2007.

[3] Jeremy Page, Chinese billions in Sri Lanka fund battle against Tamil
Tigers, The Times (U.K.), May 2, 2009.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] B. Muralidhar Reddy, Iran extends credit facility to Sri Lanka, The
Hindu, September 21, 2009.

[8] Shamindra Ferdinando, High level Iranian military delegation due in
Colombo, The Island, October 9, 2009.

[9] Ibid.

[10] US out, enter Russia, Op. cit.

[11] Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, The Globalization of Military Power: NATO
Expansion, Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), May 17, 2007.

[12] B. Muralidhar Reddy, SCO dialogue partner status for Sri Lanka, The
Hindu, July 18, 2009.
 

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