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SRI LANKAN OPPOSITION PARTY ALLEGES INTERFERENCE IN THE INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF THE COUNTRY BY THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT OF MANMOHAN SINGH

By Walter Jayawardhana

Sri Lanka’s second largest opposition party the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in a statement issued by the party’s political bureau has attacked the island nation’s big neighbor India for stating Sri Lanka should only buy weapons from India and weapons of India’s choice to combat Tamil insurgency calling it interference in the country’s internal affairs.

India’s National Security Advisor M. K. Narayan recently said Sri Lanka should not buy weapons from countries such as Pakistan and China only limiting its purchases exclusively from India and that also limited to defensive weapons.

“Mr. Narayanan headed the Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB) from 1987 to 1990. This was a time when after secretly arming, training and sending to Sri Lanka all the Tamil separatist groups in an indirect invasion, India forced Sri Lanka to sign with Indian gunboats outside Colombo harbor an unequal treaty, the so-called Indian Accord.” said the party leader Somawansa Amerasinghe in a letter handed over to the Indian Ambassador (High Commissioner ) in Colombo

India’s coalition government headed by Manmohan Singh is heavily dependent on the support of the DMK party led by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi, whose sympathies lie with the terrorists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The main supply of weapons of the terrorist group is also from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, whose police chief said recently that the LTTE killed some Tamil Nadu fishermen and also kidnapped some others. Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi who is about to be entering the Upper House of Indian parliament called Rajya Sabha is alleged to be under contract to the LTTE to peddle influence for the terrorist group.

The follwing is the full text of the letter handed over by the JVP to the Indian ambassador:
“Mr. M.K. Narayanan, the Indian National Security Advisor has said “We [India] are a big power in the region. We don’t want the Sri Lankan government to go to Pakistan or China for weapons. Whatever may be their requirements, they should come to us”.

“Mr. Narayanan headed the Indian Intelligence Bureau (IB) from 1987 to 1990. This was a time when after secretly arming, training and sending to Sri Lanka all the Tamil separatist groups in an indirect invasion, India forced Sri Lanka to sign with Indian gunboats outside Colombo harbor an unequal treaty, the so-called Indian Accord. Mr. Narayanan undoubtedly participated in formulating and implementing all these anti Sri Lankan acts by the then Indian government. This was also the time when the Indian Air Force intruded into Sri Lankan air space to drop self-styled "food parcels" on Vadamarachchi at a time when the Sri Lankan government was about to defeat the LTTE in Jaffna peninsula.

“This behavior of India to Sri Lanka was a strong contrast to the behavior of many other countries in the region notably Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, Thailand, Iran and Malaysia who have never interfered in our internal politics. These policies of India have been just the opposite of correct relationships that were mooted by India herself together with other ex-colonial countries under the “Panchasheela” principles of noninterference in other countries.

“It is also no secret that in spite of India claiming to change her policies towards Sri Lanka she had been very reluctant to help us. When the LTTE was to overrun Jaffna peninsula a few years ago, India refused all our requests for help for sea transport. It is also no secret that when China was to give us under very favorable terms a 3D radar system, India interfered and dissuaded us from getting that.

“The JVP’s internal policies are for democracy and full equality of all citizens. To reach this goal requires the elimination of the racist and totalitarian LTTE structure. Recently, our MPs have been increasingly interacting with Indian political parties especially of the left who have understood our principled position. A few weeks ago our delegates were well received in Tamil Nadu.

“The foreign policy of the JVP is very simple. It will side with any country, whatever their other ideological views, which support Sri Lanka to regain full sovereignty. The only country to have intruded on our sovereignty in the postcolonial period is India.

“The JVP over the recent years have thought that India's bad neighbor policy had been changed. Hence the JVP began to think of India in very positive terms. But the recent statement of Mr. Narayanan, one-time head of Indian spy agencies, gives us to doubt that. As a sovereign nation Sri Lanka has the full right to trade with any nation including from where we should buy the best arms.
“India and Sri Lanka share a common heritage in many areas of culture. The JVP will always foster correct and amicable relations between our two countries but at the same time it will not shirk from its responsibility of standing for the full integrity and sovereignty of the country.”

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