By Sirimantha Ratnasekera

JVP last week called on people, civil society and religious organisations to line up with them to defeat what it termed as India’s expansionist plans by taking over Trincomalee oil tank farm.

“We have no problem with Indian people. We do not deny the fact that two nations have millennia long links. We have diplomatic relations and cultural links with India since time immemorial. Yet we cannot let the Indian government’s plans to capture Trinco oil tank farm and allow it to succeed its expansionist plans,” JVP Politburo Member and former MP Sunil Handunnetti said addressing a press conference held at the party headquarters in Pelawatte.

He said that the Trinco oil tank farm had been constructed there by the British during the time of the Second World War owing to its Geo-strategic value. “The oil tank farm gains its value owing to its proximity to the Trincomalee harbour which is known as the second-best natural harbour in the world. India somehow manipulated the incumbent government to finalize a deal to hand over the oil tank farm to them. As per the deal 14 tanks for India, 24 for Sri Lanka and 61 tanks to be developed jointly. Of those 61 tanks, 49 percent ownership would be for India. Accordingly, India gets 30 tanks from that lot. With 14 exclusively own tanks, India gets 44. Since we do not have dollars to renovate the rest of the tanks, it would be a matter of time before they too would end up in India’s hands. The agreement of this deal is to be valid till 2072.

“The government has been compelled to sign this agreement. It is Déjà vu of the Indo-Lanka agreement which was pushed down the throat of Lanka on July 29, 1987. India got the JR Jayewardene government to sign the agreement by coercion. They dropped ‘parippu’ here, violating our air space. They sent an army of 150,000 while Sri Lanka’s army had only 72,000 cadre strength. This time they have used economic means for the coercion.

“India had been planning to get hold of Trinco oil tank farm for decades now. In 2002, they proposed to construct a bridge between Dhanushkody and Talaimannar. There is a plan to link Talaimannar with Trincomalee A 12 road via Mannar, Periyankulam A 30 Road, Vavuniya, Kebitigollewa, Horowpathana A 9 road. The then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Indian transport minister studied that plan. However, it was suspended owing to political changes. Yet India has not stopped its plans to get hold of Trinco oil tank farm. This is a serious issue and we call on religious leaders and civil societies to line up with us to defeat this government handing over Trinco oil tank farm to India. We call on public to join us against this plan to remove the Lion flag from Trincomalee and to hoist the Indian flag there,” Handunnetti said.

He said that Lankan politicians should read American economic historian Dr Daniel Yergin’s Pulitzer Prize winning book ‘The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power’. “Time to time this book’s new editions are released and sold worldwide because it is so authoritative. This is like the Mahavamsa of energy industry. It identifies energy how some countries use energy to control other nations. At this rate we are being subjugated as a nation before India, it seems that soon the book will have a new chapter on how India tamed Sri Lanka using energy.”

The former MP said that there would have been no queues outside fuel stations if the Trincomalee Oil Tanks were repaired. “The tanks could have been repaired, even by borrowing funds from other countries. The Government would not have had to close down the Sapugaskanda refinery if the oil tanks were functioning properly, as India wants to build a new refinery at the place. It is us Lankans, who should want to build a refinery. Then we would not be impacted by the oil prices in the world market. We can sell oil to the Maldives. Then we have oil within our region, we have gas deposits in Mannar.”

Adding that India is a large region, Handunnetti that this proposed oil refinery would have been of great importance when Sri Lankans have found gas, and the citizens will not have to stay in line if the oil refinery stays within Sri Lanka’s control.