Did US Pacific Deputy Command Vowell Come to Sri Lanka Seeking a Return Favour?

During the ceasefire between Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government and the LTTE, the Tigers established camps around the Trincomalee harbour. At that time, the U.S. State Department instructed the Pacific Command to prepare a confidential assessment of the relative strengths of the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE. This report was subsequently handed over to Prime Minister Ranil.

The Pacific Command team that visited Sri Lanka inspected the LTTE camps near Trincomalee and carried out a thorough evaluation of both forces. Their report noted how each side might respond in the event of sudden hostilities, and it observed that the morale of the Sri Lankan military remained high under the peace process.

When war reignited, Admiral Robert F. Willard, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, visited Sri Lanka in 2008. He met President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, pledging the necessary support to secure victory. Intelligence exchanges with the Pacific Command proved decisive in the military’s success. Unconfirmed accounts suggest that in the final days of the war, the army located Prabhakaran’s hideout through satellite intelligence shared via Pacific Command’s advanced surveillance technology.

In a 2013 interview with ‘The Australian newspaper’, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa acknowledged that American satellite intelligence had played a critical role in winning the war.

Last week, Lieutenant General J.B. Vowell, Deputy Commander of the U.S. Army Pacific Command—which had helped Sri Lanka end its thirty‑year conflict—arrived in Colombo. The U.S. Embassy described his visit as historic. His primary mission was to urge the government not to provide supplies to Iranian vessels anchored near Sri Lanka’s maritime borders and to seek Sri Lanka’s cooperation in the context of the Iran conflict. The Pacific Command may believe that, having once aided Sri Lanka in overcoming the LTTE, the time has now come for reciprocal support.

By Upul Joseph Fernando

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