grenades from Pakistan, which were delivered from Pakistani Army stocks. At the same time, a usd25 million deal for artillery and mortar shells for delivery within 1 month was agreed upon.23 However, very soon after the victory over the LTTE, Sri Lanka reportedly cancelled orders from China and Pakistan worth usd200 million.24
India India had labelled the LTTE as ‘terrorist’ in 1992, the first country to do so, and Sri Lanka approached India several times to sell weapons to fight the LTTE. However, India maintained that a military solution to the conflict was not the right way and stated that it would not supply deadly or offensive weapons. The fact that Southern India has a large Tamil population, among whom some sympathy for the Sri Lanka Tamils existed put an additional restraint on Indian enthusiasm to support the Sri Lankan government.25 Offers for aid in late 2003, including transport helicopters and training, did not result in deliveries.26 In more recent years India provided limited amounts of weaponry to the government, but what little equipment was supplied could be considered or at least presented as quite defensive - an opv and several air surveillance radars. However, India still seems to have felt uneasy about these transfers. Very little publicity was given to them. The 2007 lease of a second opv was kept at such a low key by India that very few actually noticed the transfer when it took place.27 The political rivalry between India and Pakistan and between India and China became an important issue in supplies to Sri Lanka. The increase in Chinese and Pakistani arms supplies caused India to face the issue of Indian ‘pre-eminence’ in the regions above and ‘forced’ India to provide more support.28 In 2005, India
23 ‘Lanka orders emergency Pak military supplies’ Daily Times, 4 April 2008 (http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/ default.asp?page=2008\04\04\story_4-4-2008_pg7_8) 24 ‘2009 Annual Defence Report’, Jane’s Defence Weekly, 16 Dec. 2009, p. 36; Warimann, H. B., ‘Rajapaksa wins again but battle for national unity remains’, Asian Defence Journal, May 2010, p. 7. 25 In March 2008, a major political party in Tamil Nadu demanded an end to Indian military aid to Sri Lanka in order to stop ‘genocide’. ‘Stop Indian military aid to Sri Lanka: PMK’, Thaindian News, 13 March 2008, (http:// www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/stop-indian-military-aid-to-sri-lanka-pmk_10027081.html). 26 ‘India offers ‘greater military assistance’ to Sri Lanka’, The Tribune, 15 December 2003, ‘Indian military aid package’, Sunday Observer, 14 December 2003. 27 http://www.nation.lk/2007/10/14/militarym.htm. Jane’s Fighting Ships, probably the best informed publication on navies, still had in its 2008-2009 edition, which came out in early 2008, that the ship ‘reportedly’ had been transferred on lease. Jane’s Fighting Ships 2008-2009. There was some confusion about the status of the transfer, which has been both reported as a donation and a lease but in late-2009, the Indian Coast Guard wanted the two OPV back. ‘India wants warships it lent to Sri Lanka back’, Asian Defence, 12 November 2009 (http://theasiandefence.blogspot. com/search/label/Sri%20Lanka). 28 ‘India worried by Sri Lanka arms buying’, Thaindian News, 26 March 2008, (http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/ south-asia/india-worried-by-sri-lanka-arms-buying_10031569.html). http://64.233.183.132/search?q=cache:wWdpje1YJ pYJ:sify.com/news/fullstory.php%3Fid%3D14783685+us+military+aid+sri+lanka&hl=nl&ct=clnk&cd=19&gl=nl. This Indian-Chinese/Pakistani rivalry has in recent years also been a reason for Indian arms supplies to Nepal and Myanmar.
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