Tuesday, 06 November 2007

Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka during his recent visit to the US met a galaxy of US statesmen and military chiefs, including Ambassador Steven Mann, acting Assistant Secretary of State for South & Central Asian Affairs and Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, US Department of State.

On an invitation extended by US Chief of Army Staff General George W. Casey and the Government of USA, Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka made history by talking to a large gathering of middle rung officers of the US Army on "Counter Terrorist Operations". Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka was the first Commander of the Sri Lanka Army to have addressed such a symposium attended by the cream of the US Army while attending the USA Command and General Staff College (USACGSC).

During Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka's stay, he also received the rare privilege of sharing views with Mr. James Clad, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South Asia, Major General Philip M. Breedlove (USAF), Vice Director Strategic Plans and Policy and Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell, IV Commandant of the USACGSC. Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka visited the Department of State, the Pentagon and the USA Command and General Staff College (USACGSC), Fort Leavenworth and several other military establishments.

Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka delivering his near one-hour lecture and presentation to the senior US military officers on "Counter Terrorist Operations" touched on a wide variety of subjects such as Forms of Terrorism, Nature of Terrorism, Counter Terrorism, Challenges, etc.

Differentiating terrorism from insurgency, Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka told the gathering that Magnitude of Terrorists' military campaign, Level of Threat against Law and Order, Level of Military Counter attack, Political Motives and Involvement of Public Support are factors to be reckoned with before any counter-operations are planned against terrorism, keeping the civilian factor well in mind.

"Those with different political goals which cannot be achieved by democratic means can resort to terror by taking to arms, etc and resort to attacks, killings, destructions, intimidation, etc. Once they are organized strongly and heavily armed, they can even confront the Armed Forces/ Police, etc and indulged themselves in violence. Such terrorists can even take control over certain areas with less or no presence of government Armed Forces and terrorize the Government administrative machinery to ensure the government authority is non-existing or ineffective. Even internal terrorism need to extend its activities into International arena for the purpose of worldwide support."

In the case of terrorism in my country, the Commander pointed out, Tamil terrorist organization claims that a certain part of Sri Lanka belongs to Tamil people whose origins are from Tamil Nadu in India where 50 million Tamils live. Another 50 million of Indian Tamils live in other countries all over the world. About 2 million Tamils live in my country but half of them live abroad and other parts of the country. One million people claim a separate state in 1/3 of the country covering 2/3 of the coastal belt. Every military group demanding for separate state cannot be accepted as liberation fighters, the Commander commented.

Highlighting the importance of prevention of funds and supplies from foreign soil reaching any terrorist organization, Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka reminded that this could be effectively done with the assistance of foreign governments and countries. "Terrorists also run front organizations under the guise of charitable organizations and money, thus earned is sent to equip the war machinery. Money is also earned by illegal businesses such as human and drug trafficking. Terrorists also make use of corrupt agents and own rogue shipping lines, etc to import the warlike materials including heavy weapons, etc. This again can be only checked and blocked with the assistance of foreign countries from where the terrorists or corrupt agencies are operating. Effective sea operations and surveillance are essential to monitor the weapons or equipment supply to terrorists by sea routes, coupled with accurate intelligence coming via an international network."

Counter terrorist operations are conducted all over the world. In the aftermath of 9/11 the need to counter all forms of terrorism was felt world over and US has become a major actor in this context. Terrorism is equally dangerous and harmful wherever it has been launched and countries cannot deal with it unless they receive the cooperation from other countries for the campaign to counter it. Therefore the world has to jointly understand the disastrous outcome of terrorism wherever it has found breeding grounds.

Terrorists all over the world have co-operated or accepted each others' existence and prevalent facilities or networks that can be exploited by all terrorists in the world. Therefore a political consensus will have to be reached by all countries to fight terrorism. Those countries sympathetic to one's terrorist while trying to eradicate another terrorist elsewhere may not be genuine in their fight against terrorism and bound to fail in their efforts. Terrorism has become a challenge to all the countries in the 21st century and should be dealt with a global effort so that the generations to come will live in a more peaceful world, the Commander observed concluding his address.

Courtesy - army.lk / Sri Lanka Defence