The outcome of this one will be worth watching. Will Pakistan come to the Sri Lankan government´s aid where India hesitates to tread? That might well happen given that recently, there has been a flurry of visits by senior military officials and diplomats from Colombo to New Delhi and Colombo to Islamabad and vice versa.
There are now strong indications that Sri Lanka is turning to Pakistan for military help against the LTTE after getting a less-than-enthusiastic response from India. The Lahore-based Friday Times says in a special report filed by its correspondent who was in Colombo late August, that he has been told by unidentified senior officials of the Sri Lankan Army that it were actually Pakistan Air Force pilots who helped the Sri Lankans neutralise a recent major Tiger offensive that had threatened to undo gains made by the military. Significantly, no official denial has been forthcoming from the Pakistani authorities on this report, thereby giving credence to the fact that the Pakistani army is indeed assisting the Chandrika Kumaratunga government in actual field operations, (which involve potential bodily risks to Pakistani military personnel), and not only in an advisory capacity. There have also been reports that Pakistan has been a regular supplier of small arms and ammunitions to Colombo for several years.
New Delhi, of course, will hardly be pleased that Colombo is looking towards Islamabad for help. When Sri Lankan army chief, Lt Gen Sirilal Weerasooriya, visited Islamabad in July, it was perhaps the strongest confirmation that Pakistan was indeed supplying military suport to the strife-torn country.
The army chief was accompanied by Lakshman Jayakody, special envoy of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, and P. Balapatabendi, principal secretary to Kumaratunga. The trio held detailed talks with Pakistan´s military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf. Weerasooriya has since retired, but significantly he has been made Colombo´s new high commissioner to Islamabad.