A Regional Partnership
Pakistan and Sri Lanka have a shared history of crisis in parallel; there is also a shared history of cooperation during crisis. In the 50s and 60s Sri Lanka was very much an island of tranquility. 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 others 170000 (1%).
At the start of 1983 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. Perceiving Sri Lanka’s economic progress as a very real threat to its own economic ambitions, India 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. In July 1987, India imposed the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord and a strong Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) which landed in the Northern and Eastern Provinces to maintain peace came basically as a “protection force” for the Tamils, the love-fest soon soured. A ruthless policy of extermination of the others by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), nicknamed Tamil Tigers, had seen them emerge as the only Tamil military organization of any consequence. 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. The LTTE was simply playing for time and the third phase of the hostilities (which continues till the present ceasefire of the last 2 years), started with the blasting of two naval ships by the LTTE in Trincomalee Harbour on 19 Apr 1995 and the shooting down of two AVRO passenger jets two days later by anti-aircraft missiles. The Sri Lankan paradise that once was had by now become “Hell on Earth”, the fighting between the Sri Lanka Armed Forces and the Tamil Tigers went on without quarter given or taken. As the new millennium came and went, the Tamil Tigers were still trying to retake the Jaffna Peninsula and their suicide bombers were still blowing themselves and bystanders up all over the island, in Colombo. Only in the last two years a fragile Norwegian brokered ceasefire has taken effect, it is still holding. Maybe the adversity caused by the Dec 26 Tsunami will bring the two sides closer.
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 Pakistan Military academy (PMA). The first batch of 5 Sri Lanka cadets came to PMA in May 1963 to join 32nd PMA Long Course. Two of the original five served as Maj Gens in the Army, Lt Gen (Retd) Lal Weerasuriya is the present Sri Lankan High Commissioner to Pakistan. One of my course-mates, (from the second batch that joined 34th PMA in May 1964) brilliant Maj Gen “Lucky” Vijayratna died when his jeep ran over a land-mine during operations. TD Rajapaksa from my Platoon retired as a Brigadier while Ananda Weerasekera and Siri Pieris served as major generals. 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 had died in action in operations against the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) till 1997. In March 1971, Pakistan sent 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. At the height of the East Pakistan crisis in 1971, 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 (then) East Pakistan. For Pakistan, desperately short of fuel in the embattled Province, this logistics support kept the central authority in Islamabad functional till actual war broke out in Dec 1971 and all flights ceased.
The two countries have common vision and shared perceptions on many regional and international issues. They are also confronted with common problems of terrorism and economic retardation. Pakistan’s excellent relations with Sri Lanka were aptly mirrored when Sri Lanka unwaveringly supported Pakistan during the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan and also played an important role in the restoration of Pakistan’s membership in the Commonwealth.
Both Pakistan and Sri Lanka face threats to their security from within and to an extent, from the outside and both are committed to fighting these menaces. In essence a strategic relationship does not necessarily mean the undertaking or advancement of defence related or military partnerships alone. It is also the economic strength and status of a nation that equips it with strategic power of great stature; this power to be used for the emancipation of its own people and of the population of the region and not to pursue an agenda of adventurism or interference in the affairs of neighbours or other countries. The comprehensive improvement in relations can be assessed both in qualitative and quantitative terms. The main task of the leaders of both the countries is to maintain the same pattern of relations by providing a continuity in co-operation and strengthening their mutual understanding.
Pakistan and Sri Lanka enjoy a convergence of strategic interests which could provide the basis for building and reinforcing strategic cooperation between the two countries. Military training facilities in Pakistan continue to provide education and training to Sri Lankan military personnel. With such a backdrop there should be no impediments to seriously contemplate the building up of a strategic partnership in all fields – political, diplomatic, military and economic.
Ours is a long under-nourished bilateral relationship with each other, because of various reasons, one concern being that this might be negatively perceived in the neighbourhood, particularly by India. Both Pakistan and Sri Lanka determine their priorities in regional cooperation in accordance with the situation on ground. The potential to cooperate in a more meaningful manner has always been present, it only needs to be developed and finessed into a mechanism that will start generating positive results for the two countries and by extension, for the entire region. There is unanimity of views of both sides on many issues, especially those issues that continue to bedevil the sub-continent.
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