Sri Lanka seeks military aid from India

Upset with the International Community for not doing more to curb the Tamil Tigers (LTTE), Sri Lanka is seeking military arsenal and support from India and is promising that Indian weapons will not be used against Tamil civilians.

The Sri Lankan government has submitted a list of its requirements to India but it is still awaiting a response from New Delhi, which while supporting Colombo diplomatically is reluctant to forge deeper military ties with an island nation caught in a war that shows no signs of ending.

High-level Sri Lankan sources told a news agency that New Delhi needed to do 'much, much more' to help battle the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which is banned in India since 1992 on charges of assassinating former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

One of the priority items for Sri Lanka are vehicles the military can use to ward off the LTTE's claymore mines, which have accounted for most of the over 400 army, navy and police personnel killed in renewed violence since December last year.

Sri Lanka, whose Navy finds the LTTE's Sea Tigers a formidable foe, also wants the Indian Navy and Coast Guard to enforce an effective blockade of the sea surrounding the island's northeast to choke the rebels' military supplies.

It is looking for further Indian technology, besides the radars it has secured from New Delhi, to mount better surveillance of its airspace in view of the LTTE's newfound aerial power.

'There also has to be aerial photography that can help us,' an informed Sri Lankan source said from Colombo on the condition of anonymity. 'Then of course we need more intelligence cooperation. 'We have told India that we will not use any of these against Tamil civilians,' the source added. 'These shall only be used against LTTE targets.'

India's hesitance

India and Sri Lanka have long-standing military ties, which continued even when New Delhi was accused of covertly backing Tamil militancy in the 1980s.

But India is hesitant to sell combat weapons to Colombo as opposed to equipment used mainly for defence.

India has also not signed a military cooperation pact Sri Lanka seeks.

But some Indian officials have let it be known that Sri Lanka can seek military weapons from any country. There is no indication that India might meet Sri Lanka's military requests.

Last week, India reiterated to Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera that war was not an option for Sri Lanka and there had to be a political solution to the ethnic conflict.

The LTTE, which has stepped up violence since December 2005, is opposed to deeper military engagements between India and Sri Lanka. The training of a group of Sri Lankan policemen in India had to be ended abruptly this month following protests by Tamil Nadu political parties known to be sympathetic to the LTTE. Sri Lanka's need for Indian military support comes amid persistent differences between Colombo and the international community on how to overcome the escalating bloodshed that is pushing the country towards another full-fledged war.

Lankan grouse

The Sri Lankan government's grouse is that the US, Canada and the European Union may have outlawed the LTTE but have not taken adequate steps to curb the Tigers' propaganda network as well as money collection. At the same time, the source said, the West - and India too - keeps advising Sri Lanka to go slow each time the government launches a military offensive. 'This is very, very frustrating,' the source said.

Some of these concerns have been expressed to Norwegian special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer, who ended a difficult trip to Sri Lanka over the weekend meeting leaders of LTTE as well as the government even as the two sides were locked in combat.

(India Defense)