Gamage on USA’s Machinations in Support of the Tamil Tigers

An investigative-research-analyses which discloses Washington’s playbook and machinations that revived Sri Lanka’s domestically-annihilated Tamil Tigers in the global arena as an influential diplomatic-political force is well documented in a book – Tamil Tigers’ Debt To America: US Foreign-policy Adventurism & Sri Lanka’s Dilemma – written by a professional who worked within the United States system for 25 years, released last week in the U.S. by the publishing house of Amazon.

The most revealing observation in this book is: One cannot recall in recent memory how a totally annihilated lethal terrorist movement along with its superior military power was resurrected and emerged as a global political movement with a determination to achieve the same objective – a separate state for the minority ethnic Tamils in the north-east region of Sri Lanka.

The author of the book Daya Gamage employed by the U.S. Department of State as a political specialist in its diplomatic mission in Colombo, Sri Lanka attributes this transformation of the militarist LTTE to Washington liberal policymakers explaining “Washington’s disappointment in its failure to salvage Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger leadership – which it believed represented the sentiments of the minority Tamils – to use it as a pressure group to influence changes in Sri Lanka when the outfit was annihilated in 2009.”

The author authoritatively says in the book “To avenge the foreign policy setback, Washington created a conducive atmosphere – through its foreign policy advocacy – that facilitated the emergence of a stronger, determined and more coordinated Tamil Diaspora – once effectively functioned to sustain the LTTE – as a global diplomatic movement.”

The book separates from other existing ones on the subject in providing an unparalleled angle penetrating into Washington’s covert and overt maneuvers and designs aiding and abetting a global supportive instrument of a terrorist organization which is motivated to destabilize Sri Lanka. The analyses and interpretations, based on the author’s deep knowledge and insights gained during his tenure at the U.S. Department of State, not found in other works. The link the author discovered between Washington’s settled mindset developed in the 1980s and 1990s on Sri Lanka’s national issues, and post-2009 renaissance of the global supportive instrument of a terrorist group is unique to the readers. The interpretations and analyses of discovered data of this cohabitation, and Washington’s adventurism are aptly reflected in the gathered evidence that has gone into the formation of the theme of the book.

The most striking in this book is the U.S. State Department’s diplomatic maneuver, as the corner stone of its foreign policy, to lift the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora to an influential (global) position through its Diaspora Initiative Movement as an alternative to the militarily annihilated Tamil Tigers to influence changes in Sri Lanka.

The book discloses the change of maneuver since the advent of the Sirisena-Wickremasinghe administration in early 2015.

The author’s insights gained during his engagement with the State Department facilitated to disclose how American foreign-policy objectives and the strategic diplomatic agenda of the professional operatives within the Tamil diaspora coincided well to bring Sri Lanka toward global scrutiny.

What the author has compiled and written in the book – using his deep understanding following his professional engagement at the American diplomatic mission in Colombo –is the progressive development of the American perspectives, mind-set and policies on Sri Lanka’s national issues, Washington’s outlook on Tiger terrorism associated with the Tamil diaspora, and the significance of the emergence of the Tigers’ once global supportive arm – the Tamil diaspora – as a diplomatic network.

The book discusses the significant element the American foreign policy played during the existence of and since the military defeat of the Tigers, and its impact on Sri Lanka as a sovereign nation. It has endeavored to combine all these to give analyses and interpretation using the author’s deep knowledge in a different perspective touching the issue of America’s foreign-policy adventurism.

This book is a political analysis that unearths the manner in which the US Department of State strategically teamed up with the professional operatives within the Tamil diaspora under cover of human rights, rule of law, and good governance in post war Sri Lanka.

The material that has gone into the book which identifies a link that has not been adequately dealt with bringing into the open a strange collaboration between Washington policymakers and advocates of a separate state in Sri Lanka within the Tamil Diaspora undoubtedly will bring close scrutiny from a large group of people: especially a fair percentage of the 800,000-strong Sri Lankan Tamils domiciled in North America, Europe and Scandinavia. Obviously, foreign policy handlers, analysts, academics interested in foreign policy nuances and students of international affairs will give extra attention to what has gone into the book written by someone who was within the U.S. system.

During his professional engagement with the U.S. Department of State (1970-1994) in the areas of public affairs and public diplomacy, author of this book Daya Gamage was privy to Washington’s play book of foreign policy dealings with Sri Lankan issues. He gained extensive knowledge how U.S. Foreign Service Officers, and their counterparts in Washington, made crucial decisions, influencing factors on decisions, their mindset formation, and had access to their sensitive thinking. This wide understanding became rich fodder to the extraordinary analyses and interpretation of this book disclosing a link of that mindset formation to Washington’s trajectory hauling Sri Lanka to Geneva.

The author’s research, analyses, investigations and privileged conversations with American officials who enjoyed high security clearances, and interactions with US Congressional delegations – CODELs, vastly enriched his understanding the manner in which Washington managed and conducted its overseas foreign policy agenda in South Asia.

The wide range of contacts the author maintained with Sri Lanka’s military at all levels, intelligence agencies, members of the ruling and opposition elite and civil society members during and since his tenure at the U.S. diplomatic post in Sri Lanka enriched his knowledge, and such insights were used to produce valuable interpretations in this book.

The author was in a unique position to unlock his understanding of American foreign policy trajectory toward Sri Lanka, hitherto unknown to outsiders, to take the conversation toward a different direction and contribute to the already existing rich literature on these issues.

Daya Gamage earned a Meritorious Honor Award for Superior Performance and Professionalism in 1988 from the U.S. ,State Department. He is currently political-foreign affairs correspondent to this online daily newspaper Asian Tribune. – Asian Tribune –