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| Southeast Asia |
| The Tsunami -- Some Security Aspets |
| 2005-01-04 |
| From South Asia Analysis Group, an article by B. Raman, Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Distinguished Fellow and Convenor, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Chennai Chapter. .... areas inhabited by ethnic minorities have been very badly affected in the Tamil-majority Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka and in the Car Nicobar area of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. .... about a half, if not over a half, of the fatalities in Sri Lanka are of the Sri Lankan Tamils ..... 16,656 Tamils have been killed .... The Andaman and Nicobar island territory of India, which has been the most affected in India, is inhabited by a large number of settlers from mainland India in the Andaman District. The Car Nicobar group of islands, which is less developed and more isolated, despite its strategic importance as the widow on South-East Asia and a watch-tower on the Malacca Straits, is largely inhabited by indigenous tribals. .... Taking advantage of this, Western non-governmental organisations seem to be exercising pressure on the Govt. of India to let them go into Car Nicobar to attend to the relief and rehabilitation needs of the tribals. Keeping in view the strategic importance of the area, the Government of India has rightly rejected their demands. .... If the Western NGOs continue to give sermons to India on its obligation to let them go into Car Nicobar, New Delhi should not hesitate to tell them to first go to the US Naval base in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to estimate the humanitarian needs of the people there. .... US naval ships and military personnel have started moving into the affected countries to organise the relief effort. It has been reported that about 1,300 US Marines are likely to be deployed in Sri Lanka alone. .... The large-scale deployment of highly visible US troops in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand could make them attractive targets for Al Qaeda, the Jemmah Islamiyah and other jihadi terrorist organisations and add to the internal security problems of the affected countries. It would be wishful-thinking to believe that because of the enormous tragedy, the jihadi terrorists will refrain from acts of terrorism in the Tsunami-ravaged countries due to a fear that this could antagonise the local population. They have never cared for public opinion and fears of public revulsion have never been an inhibiting factor for them. The tragedy in Thailand has not prevented the jihadi terrorists from continuing with their acts of terrorism in the Muslim majority provinces of southern Thailand. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |