“Sohni Dharti” in Colombo
On Sept 12, 1997 my wife and I were privileged to be invited to Sri Lanka for an extraordinary occasion, the first get-together of the “Sri Lanka Alumni” of the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA), Kakul. Over 200 Army officers and their wives attended the “Inaugural Banquet” in the Galadari Hotel in Colombo which was graced by the Deputy Minister for Defence Gen Anuraddh Ratwatte and the Army Commander, Lt Gen Rohan Datuwalle. Pakistan was officially represented by the High Commissioner Mr Abdul Basit Haqqani and the Defence Attache, Group Captain Junaid Ameen. As a 34th PMA Long Course batch-mate of three Sri Lanka Army Major Generals (two serving, one having died in action), I was the “unofficial” representative from Pakistan. Sri Lanka Army had requested the Pakistan Army to send the Commandant PMA and one representative of each of the 6 PMA Courses that the Sri Lankans had attended. Because of an “economy drive”, the Government of Pakistan (GOP) had (in the infinite wisdom of its bureaucracy of which few parallels in this world exist) declined the invitation.
The first batch of 5 Sri Lanka cadets come to PMA in May 1963 to join 32nd PMA Long Course. Two of the original 5 are serving Major Generals in the Army, Maj Gen Lal Weerasuriya, the senior-most is presently the Deputy Chief of Staff, while Maj Gen Nomani has two hats, GOC of a Division and Commander of the Volunteer Reserve. One of my course-mates, brilliant Major General “Lucky” Vijayratna died when his jeep ran over a land-mine during operations. The second Sri Lanka batch comprised of 6 Gentleman Cadets, TD Rajapaksa from my Platoon, who retired as a Brigadier, Col Ratynayake, Master of Ceremonies (MC) for the Occasion, is presently commanding the Recruits Training School while Ananda Weerasekera and Siri Pieris are serving major generals. Ananda, who contrived to send me the personal faxed invitation had the distinction of knocking me out of contention for the Royal Military Academy (RMA), Sandhurst by knocking me out in Boxing in the Second Term (and probably put paid to my chances of winning the Sword of Honour which was eventually won by the most deserving cadet in our term, Maj Gen Khurshid Alam, Deputy QMG Pakistan Army). Ananda remains one of my best friends 33 years later. This friendship endures despite the fact that when I was unconscious on the stretcher inside the ambulance and saw his face hovering over mine, plaintively asking me, “Ikram, are you alright?” I hit him with my best punch of the day and broke his nose.
Maj Gen Lal Weerasuriya recounted the history of the first Sri Lankans to enter the PMA as Gentleman Cadets (GCs) in 1963. It is not everyday that you get to hear a senior Armed Forces officer of another country speak in such glowing terms about your Army and your country. The Sri Lankans are really grateful to Pakistan for having trained so many from their officers in PMA, after the first 14 in the 60s, more than 450 graduated from PMA in the 80s and 90s in three more batches. Out of the 476 officers who passed out from the PMA into the Sri Lankan Army, 56 have died in action in operations against the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), better known as Tamil Tigers, the most ruthless of all guerrillas in modern times. Of the 200 officers present for the function almost half were on a long weekend from the battle front. While we were having dinner, the Sri Lanka Army Band accompanied male and female leads singing patriotic Urdu songs, “Sohni Dharti Allah Rakhe”, “Jeeway, Jeeway Pakistan”, Main Bhi Pakistan hoon, tu bhi Pakistan hai”, etc. To hear these songs sung on foreign soil by foreign singers on such an occasion can make anyone emotional, my wife and I were no exceptions.
This was a singularly overwhelming display of love and affection for Pakistan. It is very difficult to describe the atmosphere and my only regret is that some bean-counting, pound foolish “Babu” could not understand the value of the goodwill that could have been force-multiplied by the small gesture of sending 6-7 people to reciprocate the warmth on display. This was not only ridiculous it was inexcusable, by our absence we cut into the very much apparent goodwill.
In the 50s and 60s Sri Lanka was very much an island of tranquillity. A beautiful paradise inhabited by a very peace-loving people, this island of approximately 25000 square miles has a population of 17 million, of which more than 12.5 million (74%) are Sinhalese, 2.21 million are Tamil (13%), 1.19 million are Muslims (7%), Indian Tamils are 850000 (5%) and other 170000 (1%). Relations with Pakistan warmed up in the early 60s, the first tangible sign of cooperation was the sending of three batches 14 cadets to the PMA. In 1971, at the height of the East Pakistan crisis, the then PM Mrs Srimavo Bandernaike, mother of the present President of Sri Lanka, Mrs Chandrika Kamaratunga, resisted Indian pressure to close down Bandernaike International Airport for flights to and from-East Pakistan. For Pakistan, desperately short of fuel in then East Pakistan, this logistics support kept the central authority in Islamabad functional till actual war broke out in Dec 1971 and all flights ceased. In March 1971, Pakistan responded by sending an army aviation contingent comprised of pilots, helicopters and ground crew when the Janatha Vimukthi Peranuma (JVP) attempted a bloody North Korean supported Marxist revolution. It was at the start of 1983 when mass attacks on the Tamil population by the Sinhalese forced quite a number to seek refuge abroad and the Tamil youth to join mainly four militant groups. A ruthless policy of extermination of the others by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) saw them emerge as the only Tamil military organization of any consequence. There are over 50 million Tamils in South India and India perceived Sri Lanka’s economic progress as a very real threat to its own economic ambitions, they began to arm and train Tamils besides assisting them in other ways as an extension of the “Indira Doctrine” for hegemony in South Asia as well as the Indian Ocean. Of particular interest to them was the region’s largest deep-water harbour at Trincomalee. The Sri Lanka civil strife really started in 1983 and continues 14 years later. In July 1987, India imposed the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord which saw the induction of a strong Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in the Northern and Eastern Provinces to maintain peace. However, while the IPKF came basically as a “protection force” for the Tamils, the love-fest soon soured. The LTTE began a confrontation with the IPKF in October 1987 which went on till the IPKF were forced to withdraw from Sri Lanka in March 1990. This led to an armistice of sorts between Sri Lanka Armed Forces and the LTTE till in June 1990, the LTTE broke off from the peace talks by attacking and killing hundreds of policemen. This phase of the war continued till Jan 1995 when cessation of hostilities was again established. However, it soon became clear that the LTTE was simply playing for time and the third phase of the hostilities (which continues till date), started with the blasting of two naval ships by the LTTE in Trincomalee Harbour on 19 April 1995 and the shooting down of two AVRO passenger jets two days later by anti-aircraft missiles.
The third phase of hostilities has seen the Sri Lanka Armed Forces change their counter insurgency strategy from the “ink blot” method to the “oil slick” method. Instead of defending fire bases (ink blot method) on the Vietnam pattern and giving the initiative over to the LTTE, they have gone for set-piece advances deep into ground vital to the LTTE in the Jaffna Peninsula, forcing the guerrillas to engage in conventional warfare in order to defend areas critical to the LTTE. By forcing civilians to leave, the LTTE made it easier for the Army to make it a free-fire zone. Operation Thunder Strike, Operation Riveresa-I (Riveresa means the rays of the sun) and Riveresa-2 have been extremely successful in decimating LTTE cadres and seizing previously “no-go” areas. I was privileged to be briefed on these operations by the Army Commander himself, Lt Gen Rohan Datuwalle, who declassified papers especially for the map presentation. As the person who conceived of and led the operations, no one could be better informed than this very distinguished combat commander. Today, without any doubt that Sri Lanka Army has established the fiat of government in almost all the previously untenable regions. This counter-insurgency campaign is one of the most brilliant conducted in the annals of military history.
Out of 476 Lanka Cadets who become officers in the Sri Lanka Army, 56 have been killed in action, the senior-most being my close friend and course-mate Maj Gen “Lucky” Vijayratne. This has been a very high price to pay for retaining peace but the high officer-to-soldier ratio of casualties does credit to the institution that trained them in Pakistan, the PMA. In the semi-darkness of the Galadari Hotel’s main Banquet Room, many faces were flushed hearing the Stanzas from “Sohni Dharti”, somehow it did not seem strange that the faces were Sri Lankan. It was payment in gratitude by friends in need for friends who care indeed, friends when the chips were down. To Ananda, Ratti, TD, Siri, with love and to “Lucky” Vijayratne who met death laughing very much as he lived, with admiration besides love. You made me proud to be a Pakistani in a world where we crave for respect, at least some people are grateful in some small measure for our support when it was most needed. The reservoir of goodwill that PMA has created in Sri Lanka is a lasting symbol that will always remain in the heart and minds of a significant number of uniformed leaders of the Sri Lanka Army. Such affection cannot be bought at any price, it cements an unshakable bond that will keep us close together in the future despite being nations with disparate cultures and religions.
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