The Joint Opposition must surely be faulted for having neglected to challenge the constitutionality of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) Bill in the Supreme Court during the time available to do so. The JO’s theatrics in the well of the House on the day the Bill was passed, amidst chaos, hardly compensate for this lapse. The OMP is the first of the so-called reconciliation mechanisms being implemented by the government in compliance with the 2015 Geneva resolution. Before the Bill was taken up in Parliament, critics had already expressed serious misgivings about aspects of it they said bypassed the law of the land and potentially undermined sovereignty.
The OMP needs to be seen as part of a larger process whereby the architecture of Sri Lanka’s institutions will undergo radical transformation – a transformation not of its own making but carried out at the behest of western powers. It is increasingly clear that introducing new legislation is a key element in the strategy. In the absence of a system of judicial review it becomes a matter of paramount importance for Sri Lankans to scrutinise proposed new Bills relating to the Geneva commitments, and challenge them in court if necessary, before it is too late – as it has become, in the case of the OMP. Once the groundwork is laid in the form of new laws, western meddling will be protected by law and very difficult to reverse, by any means short of a popular uprising.
It’s not without reason that ‘security sector reform’ is a key element in the resolution. It contains clauses aimed at taming the Sri Lankan armed forces by holding an axe over the heads of the war-winning military and political leadership in the form of Special Courts for prosecution of alleged war crimes. The resolution calls for an administrative process to root out those even suspected of human rights violations, but against whom there is no evidence with which to bring them to court. It seeks to discredit the war effort, project it as some great tragedy and destroy the heroic image of the Sri Lankan forces, as a prelude to subordinating them to US diktat.
Ironically, while arm-twisting the Sri Lankan security forces the US simultaneously seeks to induct them into joint military operations. These exercises are marketed as collaboration in ensuring maritime security and protecting the Indian and Pacific oceans from drug trafficking, smuggling, piracy etc. But the long-term objective is to lay the groundwork for a military alliance. US ambassador Atul Keshap in a speech on board a warship docked in Colombo last month openly said the US is working to strengthen ties with the Sri Lankan military.
It is intriguing to observe how seamlessly the US pursues its geopolitical objectives through increasing military ties with Sri Lanka, while at the same time hauling the Sri Lankan military over the coals, under the guise of advancing ‘reconciliation.’
Keshap’s Op Ed hailing the OMP was up on the embassy website the very day after its peculiar passage on the 11th. All stages of the Bill were rushed through Parliament in less than an hour with government MPs shouting “Aye” and the Speaker quickly saying “Sammathai” (‘Passed’) while the JO engaged in noise-making.
In his article Keshap referred to “the horrors of the past, the violence of three decades and the anti-democratic governments,” and then said “Compare that situation to today.” Nowhere does he mention the role of the Sri Lankan armed forces who, by ending the scourge of terrorism, made change possible. This glaring oversight becomes perfectly logical however, when it is understood that the post-war heroic status of SL military is incompatible with the US project.
The main focus of Keshap’s piece was the US Air Force’s ‘Operation Pacific Angel,’ a program to renovate schools and provide medical services in Jaffna. Seeing that there is no shortfall in medical or educational services by the state to the North, nor any natural disaster or emergency, the timing of the mission involving US Air Force personnel is interesting. Till now military contacts were mainly through US Navy.
A closer look at some simultaneous developments helps to form a clearer picture of what is happening. On 10th August cabinet approval was announced for the purchase of 8–12 multirole fighter aircraft with weapons for the Sri Lanka Air Force. The cabinet spokesman’s explanation for this seemingly unnecessary peace-time military expenditure, by a cash-strapped government, was that the SLAF had to upgrade its ageing fleet and maintain ‘operational readiness’ for any ‘unexpected aerial threat.’ What is the potential aerial threat that Sri Lanka faces? The LTTE threat is over, the country is not at war with any other state and there is no danger of attack by a foreign force. The only possible explanation is that Sri Lanka is readying itself to undertake operations on behalf of, or in alliance with, some other more powerful state as a junior partner. Are Sri Lanka’s Northern and Eastern Provinces to become beachheads for future US military activity in the region?
The new fighter aircraft are said to have the capability to fly ‘over the horizon’, meaning presumably to engage in operations beyond Sri Lanka’s airspace. In April it was reported that the government had commissioned two ships to be built in India and that the SLN was to be trained in deep sea operations. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, appearing to take on the role of Defence Minister, declared a 10-year plan for the Navy to ‘protect sea routes from the Maldives to Malacca Straits.’
On April 11, 2016, this column commented on another speech in Trinco where PM Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka would have to ‘buy more ships, planes and weapons’ for the Navy to fulfil this new ‘duty.’ It asked if the PM, not only “expects the country to surrender its sovereignty to support the ambitions of the world’s sole superpower, but that he is ready to subsidise that project as well?” (http://www.dailymirror.lk/108132/Red-carpet-in-Beijing-Blue-Ridge-in-Colombo). Sri Lanka’s recent military purchases seem to establish that this ‘subsidising’ has indeed come to pass.
Recent US military contacts with Sri Lanka seem to point to some plan to use Sri Lankan personnel in amphibious operations. From 7 -17 April, SL Navy divers underwent training at the US naval base in Guam, coordinated by Commander, Task Force 75 of the US Navy in the 7th Fleet area of responsibility. Both the US war ships that recently visited Colombo – the USS Blue Ridge and USS New Orleans - are high tech amphibious assault ships, with Blue Ridge being described in Wikipedia as having the ‘most advanced joint amphibious command and control centre ever constructed.’ And last month Sri Lanka’s Navy Commander Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijeguneratne was invited to attend the ‘Pacific Command Amphibious Leaders Symposium’ in California.
The Yahapalana leadership seems to grossly underestimate the consequences of entering into military ties with the world’s sole superpower. Only the politicians of the Old Left like Tissa Vitarana and Vasudeva Nanayakkara have warned of the neo-imperialist designs of Sri Lanka’s new best friend. The US exercise is part of its bigger plan to curb the maritime expansion of China. Deeper engagement with the US military will unnecessarily drag Sri Lanka – a supposedly Non-Aligned nation of the global South - into uncharted territory of big power rivalry, with all the attendant dangers posed by such an alignment.
