Sri Lanka seeks Indian help after Tiger threats
Sri Lanka’s hardline president installed a new prime minister today who immediately called on neighbouring India to help revive its frozen peace process amid post-election threats of a new civil war by the Tamil Tiger rebels.
India suffered massive troop losses when it last intervened in its neighbour’s internal conflict in the late 1980s and was forced to withdraw all its peacekeepers.
New Delhi said it would not respond until it received a formal proposal from new Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse.
Rajapakse, 58, previously the opposition leader, is regarded as a political moderate even though he heads an alliance that supports President Chandrika Kumaratunga – who openly says she does not trust the rebels after they tried to assassinate her in 1999.
The alliance won most, but not an outright majority, of seats in Parliament at fiercely contested elections last week and is now under pressure to form a coalition government with smaller parties.
Rajapakse identified peace with the Tamils as his main priority.
He said Kumaratunga, who bitterly accused the former government of making too many concessions to the Tigers, would supervise the peace process and that New Delhi should take a leading role as well.
“We want India involved as soon as possible,” Rajapakse told reporters. “I have always wanted India to play a role in Sri Lanka.”
It was unclear whether he meant New Delhi should be diplomatically engaged or whether a troop deployment was possible.
India sent peacekeeping troops to Sri Lanka in 1987, but soon found itself in a military quagmire and withdrew in late 1989 after losing 1,200 soldiers.
In 1991, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who had ordered the original peacekeeping deployment, was assassinated by a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber.
Chastened by that experience, India has since played a hands-off role.
