The Times (London)
June 2 1987, Tuesday
India angers Colombo with plan for Tamil aid convoy
BYLINE: From MICHAEL HAMLYN
SECTION: Issue 62784.
LENGTH: 664 words
DATELINE: COLOMBO
India yesterday raised the international stakes in the Indian Ocean by proposing to send a
convoy of 20 ships carrying humanitarian aid to the Tamil population of the Jaffina
peninsula in the north of Sri Lanka.
Egged on by reports of suffering and death in the military campaign just ended,
desseminated by the offices of the separatist Tamil rebels in south India, Mr Rajiv
Gandhi's Government announced that it will send the ships - unarmed and flying the Red
Cross flag - to Jaffina tomorrow. Mr JN Dixit, the Indian High Commissioner in
Colombo, delivered this message to the Sri Lankan Government, asking that the convoy
be given access to the peninsula.
A measured response from the Government was delivered to the Indians denying that
Tamils were in any real need, but offering 'in the spirit of good neighbourly relations' to
accept the cargoes, subject to further discussions on 'the modalities'.
It seems unlikely, however, that the Indians are in a mood to accept such a response and
are determined to press ahead with the boat-lift, whether the Sri Lankans like it or not.
Meanwhile, Mr Lalith Athulathmudali, the Sri Lankan Minister for National Security,
said later on nationwide television that the Indian action was regarded as 'an
infringement, of an attempt to infringe our sovreignty'.
Mr Athulathmudali also announced last night that a fuel embargo, which has been
making life difficult for the inhabitants of the Jaffina peninsula, has been lifted. Both
petrol and paraffin will be freely available.
Senior Cabinet ministers gathered last night at the office of President Jayewardene to
discuss Sri Lanka's further moves, but officials pointed out that sending material directly
to Jaffna without their concurrence would flout all known international custom.
The full Sri Lankan authorities were already making arrangements yesterday for
distribution of food and emergency supplies to Jaffna.
The Armed Forces' joint operation in the Jaffna peninsula has come to an end with the
capture of guerrilla strongpoint in a smugglers' cove to the east of Point Pedro, the
northernmost habitation in Sri Lanka.
The Army now holds 35 square miles of former bandit country, where the writ of the
Colombo Government has not run for almost two years. It has cost the lives of 37
servicemen including two officers. General Cyril Ranatuge estimated yesterday that only
44 civilians had died in the cross-fire.
The last figure is very different from 'the calculated slaughter of thousands of Sri Lankan
civilians', which the Indian Prime Minister complained of last week.
Whatever the figure, the citizens of the Vadamarachchi division of the peninsula now
have to settle down to living once more with the reality of the Army presence, while the
Army has to work out ways of protecting and consolidating its hold on the area.
One of the problems with the notion, widely held in India, that the Sri Lankan Armed
Forces intend to seize the control the whole of the Jaffna peninsula at gunpoint is that
they simply, even after tripling the size of their forces in the past three years, do not have
sufficient soldiers to do so.
The Sri Lankan Army formed its 10th battalion two weeks ago, an outfit too green to be
put into battle yet. The Vadamaratchchi operation took four battalions of the remaining
nine. One battalion mans the Jaffna fort, and the other camps in the area. Another
battalian is occupied with the Elephant Pass and the drive to Iyakachchi north of it.
The other three battalions are scattered in various northern posts.
Where, ask diplomatic observers, will the other troops to take and hold the rest of the
peninsula come from?
There will, observers assume, now be a break in military activity in the north while the
3,400 men of the formations involved in Vadamaratchchi construct strong-points of their
own, and begin the kind of patrolling they have been unable to do for the past two years.
STATE: TAMIL NADU, INDIA (94%); SOUTH INDIA (92%);
CITY: COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (86%);
COMPANY: LIBERATION TIGERS OF TAMIL EELAM (57%); LIBERATION
TIGERS OF TAMIL EELAM (57%);
ORGANIZATION: LIBERATION TIGERS OF TAMIL EELAM
(57%); LIBERATION TIGERS OF TAMIL EELAM (57%);
GEOGRAPHIC: SRI LANKA (99%); INDIA (96%); TAMIL NADU,
INDIA (94%); SOUTH INDIA (92%); COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (86%);
COUNTRY: SRI LANKA (99%); INDIA (96%);
SUBJECT: ARMIES (89%); REBELLIONS & INSURGENCIES (89%); MILITARY
OPERATIONS (89%); INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (78%); HEADS OF STATE &
GOVERNMENT (76%); SEPARATISM & SECESSION (73%); TERRORIST
ORGANIZATIONS (73%); NATIONAL
SECURITY (72%); SMUGGLING (61%); ALLIANCES & PARTNERSHIPS (51%);
PERSON: RAJIV RATNA GANDHI (56%); LALITH ATHULATHMUDALI (55%);
LOAD-DATE: September 21, 2000
LANGUAGE: English
Copyright 1987 Times Newspapers Limited