No Pak pilots flying Lankan Air Force fighters: Colombo

NEW DELHI: Sri Lanka has categorically told India that no Pakistani pilots are involved in Colombo's military campaign against the Tamil Tigers.

A top adviser to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse also informed Indian policy makers that Colombo was determined to capture a strategic area that overlooks the eastern port town of Trincomalee from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Basil Rajapakse, brother of President Rajapakse, stated this in free and frank discussions here with National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan as well as other officials.

Informed sources in New Delhi and Colombo told IANS that the Sri Lankan President wanted to clear the air on certain issues, which he felt were causing misunderstandings between the two countries.  

Ever since Pakistan's then envoy to Sri Lanka, Bashir Wali Mohammed, survived an assassination attempt in Colombo Aug 14, Islamabad's military ties with Colombo have come under scrutiny, and some reports have suggested that Pakistani pilots were flying Sri Lankan Air Force jets targeting LTTE bases in the island's north and east. Rajapakse said this was not true.

Rajapakse also asserted that the Sri Lankan military was intent on seizing Sampoor on the east coast because LTTE's control of the coastal region had made things difficult for the major Sri Lankan naval base at Trincomalee.

Spreading out military maps, Rajapakse explained that the control of Sampoor was very vital for Colombo. Once the mission was accomplished, Sri Lanka would be ready to talk to LTTE if the latter desired, he said.

"Rajapakse explained the strategic importance of Sampoor," one official said.

Rajapakse's sudden visit to New Delhi comes amid fierce fighting in Sampoor region that has left scores dead on both sides and displaced thousands, mainly Tamil civilians.

The LTTE had built a major military base in Sampoor since the Norway-brokered 2002 ceasefire agreement. Military experts the Tigers can use Sampoor to cripple or at least seriously disrupt Trincomalee.

Rajapakse pointed out that the LTTE had killed 169 Sri Lankan soldiers from December 2005 until the outbreak of major hostilities in July 2006. Since then, he claimed, just over 100 soldiers had died in combat against the Tigers.

His argument was that the LTTE's earlier method of picking out soldiers in two's, three's and four's was far most costly to the Sri Lankan state than open war.

In an obvious reference to India and other countries, he complained that Colombo was being told to halt stop its military offensive, but similar advice was never given to the LTTE when it began killing Sri Lankan soldiers.

Indian officials got the impression that Basil Rajapakse, who along with his other brother Gotabaya forms the inner core of the Sri Lankan government led by Mahinda Rajapakse, was clear about the risks flowing from the present fighting that threatens to snowball into all out war.

In other words, President Rajapakse appears to have considered the possibility that the LTTE could hit back if and when it lost control of Sampoor, which many feel could happen in light of the ferocity of the Sri Lankan military advance.

On their part, Indian officials listened patiently to Basil Rajapakse but told him politely that war could never bring about a lasting solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka, which badly needed a political rapprochement.

Much of the international community also fears that Sampoor's capture would only escalate Sri Lanka's present fighting.

The LTTE has described the rationale given by Colombo for its offensive as "spurious" and "deceptive".