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about Asia Buzz
Subcontinental Drift: Come Together
India and Pakistan should join hands to help Sri Lanka
By APARISIM GHOSH
May 4, 2000
Web posted at 4:30 p.m. Hong Kong time, 4:30 a.m. EDT
As the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam score victory after sensational victory over the Sri Lankan army, the government in Colombo is calling on India for help. New Delhi is naturally cautious: the last time it sent out the cavalry--Rajiv Gandhi's ill-fated Indian Peace Keeping Force--to help the Lankans, it was a disaster. The IPKF failed to quell the Tigers, and the island's Sinhalese majority grew to hate the foreign army tramping around on their soil. The Indians eventually had to withdraw in disgrace.
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It took nearly a decade of quiet diplomacy to repair the damage that misadventure did to Indo-Lankan relations. And Gandhi paid the ultimate price: he was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber.
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Delhi obviously doesn't want a repeat of the IPKF debacle. At the
same time, India cannot ignore a cry for succor from the Lankans.
For one thing, it needs to maintain warm ties with Sri Lanka. For
another, in the words of a well-connected defense analyst in Delhi:
"If we don't lend a hand, they will turn to the Pakistanis--and we
can't let that happen." Oh, and helping a neighbor would also be simply
the right thing to do.
Here's an idea: the Indian and Pakistani militaries could pool their
resources to help Sri Lanka. While they're doing so, why not bring
the Bangladeshis and Nepalese in, making it an all-subcontinental
affair? It's unlikely any of the countries will send soldiers to Jaffna
(where the ghosts of the IPKF still loom large), but they can and
should send hardware--helicopter gunships, naval vessels and all manner
of arms and ammunition. They should also lend the Lankans expertise
in troop management and battle tactics. Remember, all South Asian
armies have substantial experience in dealing with insurgents in hostile
terrain.
Combining the resources of four armies would require unprecedented
communication and cooperation between India and Pakistan, and the
long-term benefits of that are obvious. Such a venture would undoubtedly
win the blessing of (and, more to the point, financial assistance
from) the United Nations. Here's an opportunity for Delhi and Islamabad
to show the world that they can put aside their interminable bickering
and, like mature nations, do the right thing by a neighbor in need.
Will any of this happen? Probably not. But if we dismissed ideas just
because they were unlikely to come to fruition, the world would be
a sadder place.
Sound-off about the news in South Asia to
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