In my capacity as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee on the Middle East and South Asia, I just returned from several countries in South Asia two days ago. I’ll start will Sri Lanka, an island nation off the southeast coast of India, and location of one of the most intense and deadly insurgency conflicts on the globe. The civil war dragged on for 26 years, from approximately 1983 to 2009, between the majority Sinhalese government and the minority Tamil Tigers (who still remain on the United States list of terrorist organizations.)
The Tamil Tigers’ tactics were particularly violent and brutal, and they are credited with originating the practice of suicide bombing, which was eagerly adopted by our nation’s foes in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the fact that the Tamil Tigers were overwhelmingly Hindu, and our enemies are extremist Muslims.
The war officially ended in May of 2009 when the Sri Lankan government was able to isolate the Tamil insurgents in a smaller and smaller area in the northern part of the country, and eventually virtually wiped them out. There are credible allegations of gross human rights violations and war crimes on both sides, and my purpose was to meet with representatives of the government (mostly Sinhalese) and with the Tamils, and review the evidence and facts from an “honest broker’s” point of view.
The United States’ point of view is that there must be accountability and full disclosure before there can be true reconciliation between the two sides, and the country can finally move forward in peace and prosperity. Among others, I met with G. L. Peiris, the Minister of External Affairs (who is comparable to our Secretary of State), Parliamentarians, human rights activists, and General Hathurusinghe, the military commander who now has authority over the northern region where the worst of the fighting and alleged massacres took place. Also in the north, I visited a site where mines are being removed. Both the military and the insurgents laid hundreds of thousands of mines, and unfortunately records of where they were placed have often been lost or destroyed, and many people are maimed or killed when they return to their homes and villages, or attempt to plow their fields. Most disturbing, children seem to be particularly vulnerable to the mines and unexploded ordinance which can be virtually anywhere.
On a sidenote, China is investing billions of dollars in Sri Lanka (as they are all over the world – having huge surpluses of cash to do so.) A lot of the money is going to build port facilities. They hire virtually no Sri Lankans on these projects, shipping in their own people from China. Many of the Chinese workers are prisoners, who are held on Chinese prison ships offshore.
Next stop – Nepal. Nepal is strategically located in the Himalayas between the two most populous nations on earth – China and India. A ten year long extremely bloody communist Maoist insurgency ended back in 2006, and the country is now struggling to complete the peace process and draft a new constitution. (You might also remember the tragedy Nepal suffered when the King, the Queen, and virtually the entire royal family was massacred by a deranged family member some years back.)
Anyway, the Maoist insurgency resulted in the deaths of over 15,000 Nepalese before a comprehensive peace agreement was signed in 2006. Interestingly, the two most popular parties are now the Maoists on one hand, and the United Marxist Leninist Party on the other hand. Most of the 19,000 Maoist insurgents have been disarmed, and many are slowly being incorporated into the Nepalese army. I met with the current leader of the country, Prime Minister Bacuram Bhattarai, and discussed a whole range of issues. I also met with the Army Chief of Staff, General Chhatra Man Gurung, and the Foreign Minister (comparable to our Secretary of State) Narayan Kazi Shrestha, among others.
Most significantly, I toured a refugee center which aids Tibetans who have risked their lives fleeing from Tibet (which is still under the control of Communist China), and Matai Nepal, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving vulnerable Nepalese women and children from sex trafficking. Some of the stories I heard from children and young women in particular who had been rescued from sex slavery in brothels in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) were truly horrific.
Next, Bhutan, which is a small country of about 700,000 people (approximately the same number of people in our Congressional District), and like Nepal, strategically located between India and China. Interestingly, the United States does not have an embassy or official diplomatic relations with Bhutan. Their policy has been to remain as non-aligned as possible, therefore choosing to forego official diplomatic relations with any of the five Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, or the U.S. Despite this fact, Bhutan wishes to have closer relations with the United States, and my visit to Bhutan was part of that effort.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect in my time in Bhutan was meeting with the Chief Justice of their Supreme Court, Lyonpo Sonam Tobgay. Bhutan had been a monarchy until just two years ago, and just recently adopted their Constitution now that they are a constitutional democracy. Since I served as the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution for six years, we discussed various aspects of their constitution versus ours. Here in the U.S., Congress will soon be voting on whether to amend our Constitution to require a balanced budget (I of course favor it.) Bhutan already has the equivalent of that requirement in their constitution.
And finally, the second most populous nation on earth, and the most populous democracy, India. It has 1.2 billion people (compared to our 315 million), and is on the path to surpassing China’s population in the near future. On its borders are the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, and the Bay of Bengal; and the countries of China, Pakistan, Burma, Bangladesh, and as I’ve already mentioned, Nepal and Bhutan. It has the world’s third largest standing army, and is a nuclear power. It has one of the world’s fastest growing major economies – yet extreme poverty is still rampant.
Our relationship with India is critical, particularly if we are to get our economy, and the world’s, moving again. For example, over the last eight years, U.S. exports to India have quadrupled, growing from $4.1 billion to $16.4 billion. India has grown from our 25th largest trading partner in 2000, to our 12th largest in 2010. And last year 650,000 Indians visited the United States for tourism purposes, supporting 36,000 jobs in America. And in these tough economic times, job growth in this country has to be priority number 1.
I could go on and on about the importance of India, but I try to keep these weekly blogs to a reasonable length, so I’ll stop here. In conclusion, although my time in South Asia was interesting and I believe productive, it’s always great to be back in the good old U.S. of A. See you next week.