Once bitten ...

Sir, - When the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was sent to Sri Lanka, many Buddhist monks threatened to immolate themselves. Now that the second major city of Sri Lanka (Jaffna) is on the verge of going to the rebels (LTTE), the same monks want India to intervene. I think that India must never intervene.

There are some within India who argue that it should intervene to firmly establish its regional superpower status, which was recently acknowledged by the U.S. They also panic at Pakistan or China trying to have a say in the Indian Ocean under the pretext of brokering peace.

But let us remember that the whole world has ostracised Pakistan for the failure of democracy, so it does not have the moral position to set other's house in order.

The same applies to China, with all its problems from Taiwan to Tibet. They are less likely to intervene without getting a green signal from India, which cannot be ignored in the region.

The trap set by Sri Lanka to lure the Indian army to save itself is Machiavellian. The Island newspaper brilliantly puts it, ``Indians cannot remain aloof to what is happening across a few miles of sea on its (sic) southern coast'', which amounts to patent acknowledgement of India's regional superiority, as much as a red carpet to the Indian army.

India has championed the cause of the U.N. and ridiculed the U.S. for marginalising the only meaningful world body. India has a lot to learn from the Australian example in the 1999 East Timor crisis. Australia never made the mistake of fighting its neighbouring Indonesia, it only agreed to lead U.N. troops.

India must diplomatically press for a peaceful solution in Sri Lanka, provide an ambience for Norwegian-led peace process, or possibly an intervention by the U.N. The Sri Lankan crisis is the internal problem of a sovereign neighbour, and India must respond in the same way it did to the coup in Pakistan.

The last thing India wants is a cold-shouldered welcome at Chennai to her brave soldiers by some of her own citizens.

Vasan S. Seshadri,

Oxford

Sir, - Now that Sri Lanka is in grave crisis and over 25,000 of its troops are trapped, it is bound to request India for military intervention. While it may be generous for the Indian Government to offer assistance to a neighbour in distress, it cannot forget the manner in which its Peace Keeping Force was humiliated and almost thrown out.

The then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's immature decision should not be repeated. The country which did not remember and appreciate the timely help of a neighbour does not deserve to be helped again whatever might be the political expediency.

P. J. Bagilthaya,

Bangalore

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