USA Trying to Impose the Kosovo Model in Sri Lanka
Posted on June 29th, 2010
- Kumar Moses
USA has "strongly urged" the Sri Lankan government to make use of the "panel"(1). Now that came as a surprise to some; didn't it? And how strange that it was appointed just a week after "fact finding missions" by four US top officials. (2) The cat is out the bag! It is no longer a secret who is behind Ban-Ki Moon's panel. It's the same old Uncle Sam trying out the same old Kosovo model. What the USA is cooking for Sri Lanka is the same concoction it cooked for Serbia-Kosovo five years ago. It was one successful concoction that worked for a change. Kosovo declared independence in 2008. Although not recognized by the UN and most countries, USA, UK, France and a few others recognize it. USA managed to create a permanent dependant satellite state in the strategically important central Europe.
Kosovo, Bosnia, etc. have given USA a reason or an excuse to deploy a large force in the all important central European region. Using US friendships in the region, American defence agencies are trying to put up a missile defence system targeting Russian ICBMs. After trying it in Poland and the Czech Republic, now the focus has moved to Romania. It is easy to guess the next move will be to the region Albania-Bosnia-Kosovo. And that will be the final resting place.
South Asia is even more strategically important and USA is trying every trick in the book to have a permanent presence in the region. Afghanistan in the long haul is too dangerous and winning hearts and minds of Afghans is not going to happen. Ethnic Albanians and Bosnians who are very closely related are elated when a visiting US official stops by. So will be the piglets of Tamil Elam when the mother swine comes around. After that it will be turned into a military post to maintain US strategic defence interests in the all important South Asian region with open doorways to the Middle East and Far East.
What is the Strategic Importance of a South Asian Island?
Diego Garcia saw one of the most despicable acts of genocide perpetrated by two superpowers. However, they found out that it is too far "from the action". Action includes military action currently underway and proposed action. Currently Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan have been set alight for no reason. Iran may be the next.
Proposed military action includes interfering in the Taiwan and Tibet regions of China, India, Indonesia, etc. Why is the region so important for these superpowers?
Economic power in the world is shifting it to the Asian region. China and India will be the first and third economic powers in time to come. This is a challenge to the traditional economic powerhouses. Even in traditional economic powerhouses, people of Indian and Chinese origin are increasing their hold.
Apart from economic power, there is military power. Defence expenditure is rapidly increasing in this region which means the emergence of powerful nations capable of taking on traditional superpowers. Traditional superpowers want to nip it in the bud.
Over 50% of the world population live in this region. It makes it strategically important for superpowers. Bombarding them with propaganda, winning their support or at least not antagonising them to the global exploitation process and making use of them to counter themselves are some of the "uses" of this population.
Further, world's largest Islam population is in Indonesia while the second, third and fourth largest Islam populations are in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. In other words, the region has close to 50% of the world Islam population too. Most Islamic fundamentalists to cause calamities for western superpowers originated from this part of the world. Therefore, it pays to keep a close watch over them.
The large Tamil Diaspora in western countries makes matters even easier to create a puppet nation in the North-East of Sri Lanka. Tapping into the Tamil Diaspora to have inroads into the region is another advantage.
These are some of the very powerful reasons why traditional western superpowers are eyeing the region. To their misfortune, they cannot establish military bases in the region. Then the only option is to create a puppet nation that will have no option than to house a large military base even if it means the same fate as Diego Garcia. At the very least the puppet nation will agree to allow Americans the use of it's territory, continental waters and the exclusive economic zone for their military work.
The Kosovo Model at Work in Sri Lanka
Following the brutal war in former Yugoslavia, NATO troops occupied the area. The conflict ended and Bosnia-Herzegovina gained freedom. However, things didn't end here for the Americans. They wanted more. That was how Kosovo was separated a decade after the conflict ceased. At first a bogus reconciliation process was initiated by the USA. Strangely, it was more about keeping people separated based on ethnicity than integration. (3) Occupying US troops made it difficult for Serbia to carry out any integration with Kosovo (Kosovo was and still is a part of Serbia according to Serbia and most countries). It is this same twisted reconciliation model the US follows on Lanka.
Interestingly, Tamil groups in the USA highlighted the need for a two state "reconciliation" model. (4)
The puppet nation needs to do basic land and resource management in its territory. This aspect has been taken over by USAID projects. (5) Under the guise of sustainability, a series of workshops have been carried out in Kosovo and Sri Lanka to "empower" persons from the respective regions. Many concerned Sri Lankans highlighted the dubiousness of the project. (6)
However, unlike in Kosovo, USA cannot deploy troops. This deficiency is overcome by compelling Sri Lanka to devolve power to the regions, especially to the North-East region. In doing so, USA seeks the support of other regional nations like Bosnia and France in the case of Kosovo and India in the case of Lanka. For the time being, the US strategy perfectly aligns with the Indian strategy on the North-East. The next step is to establish the infrastructure for independent diplomatic missions. As in Kosovo (Pristina) before independence (7), USA plans to establish a separate "American Corner" in Jaffna.
Subjugating leaders, both political and military, to give up on the targeted territory is the next step. In the case of Kosovo, war crimes trials commenced as there were genuine war crimes. Yet, apart from an obvious connection to Bosnia, Kosovo was not connected. But by subjugating Serbia over it's war crimes committed mainly in Bosnia, US planners managed to keep Serbia silent. In the case of Sri Lanka, there are not even genuine allegations of war crimes but the US insists on investigations. It is for the same thing – to subjugate Sri Lanka so that there will be little resistance to the separation of the North-East.
Ban-Ki-Moon played a unique role in the Kosovo affair. (8) He used his position to quell any tensions that was arising from the incident. However, the Kosovo project was appropriately retaliated just eight months later in a spectacular display of military might by Russia, which made the Americans speechless. Pro-Russian South Ossetia and Abkhazia gained independence from pro-US Georgia following a short war. Given their resources, size and access to the strategic Black Sea means there is the clear winner and a loser from the whole episode. Although it was a unique case, Ban-Ki-Moon has once again become the cat's paw. When the UN Security Council rejected interference, Americans by-passed it using Ban-Ki-Moon who comes from pro-US South Korea to appoint a highly ambiguous panel. While Moon claims that it is to advise him, US contradicts his claims by saying that it is to investigate Sri Lanka. This bias shows the need to appoint the UN General Secretary from a nation that is not aligned to any of the superpowers.
In short, most groundwork in the second Kosovo project has been already commenced.
It all Adds Up
During the last stages of the war, USA offered its military assistance to Sri Lanka but was refused. In the immediate aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, US troops landed on the island fearing the repetition of what happened in Aceh, Indonesia. Following extensive tsunami destruction, Aceh rebels were quickly overpowered by the Indonesian troops, forcing them to give up. This is what the American troops wanted to avoid. After it was clear it would not happen, they left. There was no real aid they brought in as it was a sham operation! (9)
In 2009, USA issued a possible war crimes report and wanted Lanka to answer to the claims. Why did the US and not any other nation initiate this? However, following a series of other developments, the matter was shed.
Blake – the US ambassador to Colombo repeatedly acted in very hostile manner. This was something unseen from all previous US ambassadors. He tried every trick to halt the war to save the tiger administration. Although Chilcott – the British High Commissioner – too followed a similar approach, he didn't interfere as much as Blake did. Blake was very popular before his ugly manoeuvre. Why?
After more blames and absurd allegations, Hilary Clinton declared in April 2010 the recommencing of US-SL joint military exercises. (10) These were done weeks ahead of a planned Russian military drill in the region. (11)
Although seem unrelated, all these add up in the scheme of things.
How to Overcome this Threat?
This got to be overcome by friendly means. The problem got to be fixed not in the arena of SL-US relations but in frustrating the Tamil Elam separatism project. If a separate nation or any other autonomous entity cannot be created in North-East, the US, etc. plan collapses. Sure, they will try other means and other countries but this particular threat will disappear if Lanka acts with diligence. Rapid and increased militarisation of the North is key to addressing the issue. Large, permanent security forces bases should be erected in the North. Land and police powers should not be given to any regional administrative body. Paramilitaries must continue to carry weapons. In essence, nothing significant should be allowed to function in the north without the sanction of security forces.
However, this is not going to achieve anything permanent. Change of government certainly changes defence priorities. To ensure continued military presence, large agricultural and industrial colonization schemes must be carried out adjoining army camps. Since security will be an ongoing issue, camps will have to stay here despite politicians' whims and fancies. In addition to huge economic development, increase in food production, reduction in unemployment and ease of landlessness, these colonization schemes would bring, they can supply army camps with agricultural produce saving billions of rupees every year. These new settlements should be provided with schools, hospitals, electricity, access roads, entertainment facilities, libraries, sport facilities, etc. The Gam Udawa scheme must be revived to create new villages in the North reawakening the past glory in the region.
Most defence forces' personnel don't own land despite winning 1,000,000 hectares of land for the country from terrorist occupation! Building large housing projects adjoining army camps in conjunction with colonization schemes will provide not only housing but also a better work-life balance to forces personnel and less travelling. These are essential requirements to keep troop morale high and manage defence expenditure at a sustainable level.
Colonization frustrates the Tamil Elam project. Trincomlaee and Ampara districts are good examples. Decades ago racist political parties won in these districts but thanks to large scale colonization schemes such as Gal Oya, Senanayake Samudra, etc. ethnic composition has changed for the better. Tamil racist political parties including ACTC, ITAK, TULF, TNA, etc. promote separatism and racism making it difficult for ethnic integration. Making them less powerful is the surest way to weaken the Tamil Elam project. Today national political parties win these two districts and communal parties lose. In short, the "ethnic problem" has been sorted in these districts. When communal parties are not powerful, it helps people to resolve their problems.
References
(1). http://www.colombopage.com/archive_10A/Jun25_1277450687CH.php
(3). http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/sc9015.doc.htm
(4). http://www.tamilsforobama.com/Tamils.asp
(5). http://srilanka.usaid.gov/press_detail.php?press_id=42
(6). http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2010/02/28/is-anyone-watching-usaid/
(7). http://kosovo-americancorners.net/
(8). http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=25659&Cr=Kosovo&Cr1
(9). http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers13/paper1213.html
(10). http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=31554
(11). http://www.brahmand.com/news/Russia-sends-Moskva-missile-cruiser-to-Indian-Ocean/3607/1/14.html
http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2010/06/29/usa-trying-to-impose-the-kosovo-model-in-sri-lanka/
