The Asian Age – Sri Lanka rejects calls for withdrawal of troops from north

Colombo, 19 May 2012. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Saturday rejected international calls to withdraw troops from the country’s former warzones, warning that LTTE diaspora had not given up separatism.

“Some are shouting remove military camps from the north and east,” Rajapaksa said at a ceremony to mark the third anniversary of crushing of the Tamil Tigers, claiming “the LTTE diaspora had not given up their separatist ideas.”

“We cannot jeopardise national security by removing camps,” the Lankan President declared in sharp comments, hours after US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said that Colombo should demilitarise the Tamil dominated embattled north and do more to protect human rights.

Sri Lanka’s foreign minister G. M. Peiris had a 45-minute meeting with Clinton in Washington after which he told reporters that Colombo will carry out its own investigation into the rights abuses during the final phase of the island’s civil war.

The UN, the US as well as India has stressed upon the Lankan administration to demilitarise the former conflict areas and to carry out a national reconciliation.

A recommendation to de-escalate military presence in the north and east also figures in Rajapaksa’s own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report.

Rajapaksa rejected conjectures that his forces were involved in the civil administration in the Tamil-dominated north.

“What the Eelamist terrorists could not do through decades of war, they are now trying to achieve through other means,” Rajapaksa said.

But in an olive branch to the west, the Sri Lankan President asked them to see the progress of the country since the end of the three decades old armed conflict in ‘positive light’.

“We are a nation who sit equally with other members of the United Nations. We treat them equally. We have the strength to solve our own problems,” Rajapaksa said.

The Sri Lankan leader said the international governments must appreciate the services of his government towards its communities since the war ended.

“We will not abdicate our responsibilities. We have already implemented (recommendations) what we can agree with (in the LLRC).”

He said his government would not waste the opportunity to make use of the peace prevailing in the island after 30 years of bloody clashes.

The country marked the ‘victory day’ with a grand military display by Air force jets, steam passed by naval craft and a parade by the army. With over 12000 security forces personnel on display, this was the biggest military show since the end of the civil war in which 32 Sri Lankan fighter jets were on display and 72 warships steamed past.

The President presented 15 ‘parama veera vibhushana’, the nations highest gallantary awards to the next of the kin of soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice in the battle against the LTTE. (PTI)

http://www.asianage.com/international/sri-lanka-rejects-calls-withdrawal-troops-north-126

The Asian Age – China may resort to Indian territory grab, says expert report

New Delhi, 29 February 2012. China may resort to territorial grabs, including through a ‘major military offensive’, especially in Arunachal Pradesh or Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, and India should respond with ‘a strategy of quid pro quo’, says a report by an independent group of Indian analysts.

“Our frontiers with China have been mostly stable for some years now. However, China could assert its territorial claims (especially in the Arunachal sector or Ladakh) by the use of force,” says the report that seeks to outline a foreign and strategic policy for India in the 21st century.

“There is the possibility that China might resort to territorial grabs. The most likely areas for such bite-sized operations are those parts of the Line of Actual Control where both sides have different notions of where the LAC actually runs. These places are known,” says the report.

The report contends that India can’t ‘entirely dismiss the possibility of a major military offensive in Arunachal Pradesh or Ladakh’.

The report entitled ‘Non-Alignment 2.0: A Foreign and Strategic Policy for the 21st century’, was unveiled on Tuesday evening at a panel discussion at Hotel Ashok in which National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon and his immediate predecessors M.K. Narayanan, currently West Bengal governor, and Brajesh Mishra participated.

“China will, for the foreseeable future, remain a significant foreign policy and security challenge for India. It is the one major power which impinges directly on India’s geopolitical space. As its economic and military capabilities expand, its power differential with India is likely to widen,” says the publication in a chapter entitled ‘The Asian Theatre’.

The debate on India’s options in dealing with an emerging China, among other things, has coincided with the two-day visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi to India that began on Wednesday.

The report goes on to say that in case of a military offensive or territorial grab, India will need ‘a mix of defensive and offensive capabilities’ to restore the status quo ante.

“Indeed, given the fact that the combat ratio and logistical networks favour China and that the attacker will always have the advantage of tactical (if not strategic) surprise, we will need a mix of defensive and offensive capabilities to leverage the advantages the terrain offers.”

The better way of responding to limited land grabs by China, the report suggests, is for India to take similar action across the LAC: a strategy of quid pro quo. These areas should be identified and earmarked for limited offensive operations on our part, the report recommends.

In the event of a major offensive by China, the report suggests India should not resort to a strategy of proportionate response.

“Rather we should look to leverage our asymmetric capabilities to convince the Chinese to back down.”

The report recommends that India must prepare itself to trigger an insurgency in the areas occupied by Chinese forces and to develop the capability to interdict the logistics and military infrastructure in Tibet.

The report outlines other strategies to counter the Chinese offensive which includes accelerating the integration of the frontier regions and its people by speeding up and improving communication infrastructure with the mainland and to expand naval capabilities in the Indian Ocean region.

“Due to the multiplicity of the agencies involved, there is need to establish a Maritime Commission. The crucial decision we face here concerns the quantum of additional resources that we must devote to developing our maritime power.”

The report has been co-authored by a group of analysts comprising Shyam Saran, former foreign secretary and special envoy to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh; Nandan Nilekani, chairman of Unique Identity Development Authority of India; Lt General (retired) Prakash Menon, military advisor to the National Security Council Secretariat; Sunil Khilnani, professor of history at King’s College, London’s India Institute; Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president, Centre for Policy Research (CPR); Rajiv Kumar, FICCI secretary general; Srinath Raghavan, senior fellow at CPR; and Siddharth Vardarajan (Editor, The Hindu). (IANS)

http://www.asianage.com/india/china-may-resort-indian-territory-grab-says-expert-report-356