More financial, economic and political powers to the minority Tamils of Sri Lanka are the only guarantee for peace on the island, the Indian government said today, making it clear that India would neither help broker a peace in the ethnic war, nor provide any military help to
continue it.
"That is a pit full of the most venomous snakes. It must not be reattempted" said a source. "India will neither get sidetracked into military adventurism nor peripheral issues. The focus of Government of India's policy is to achieve devolution of powers for the Tamils". Government also evaded a question whether India would sell arms to the Sri Lanka and intervene in favour of the `good guys' in the war.
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"No way will military intervention be repeated. No way do we want to be in a situation like the past when President Premadasa armed and encouraged the LTTE, and then called us the forces of occupation" they said. According to the government, talk of evacuation of Sri Lankan troops from Jaffna was counterproductive, especially now that the Sri Lankan Army had actually regained some of its lost turf. Not only did this lower the morale of the troops but also opened up another front for countries which wanted to help in the resolution of the crisis. Sri Lanka had made the request for help in evacuating troops when the military situation was still unclear. India had said that repeating this request in public would only harden stands in India. This is exactly what happened, said sources in government, adding that now Sri Lanka realises that it was a tactical error to publicly ask India for military help.
India is most anxious that the war be confined to Jaffna and not spread to other areas like Batticaloa and Amparai, where Tamils are in a minority. If this means the fall of Jaffna town to the LTTE, so be it. But if the war spreads to other areas and other fronts are opened, the Sinhalese and the Muslims of Sri Lanka could also get involved.