SRI LANKA PEACE PROCESS: MALAYSIAN RESPONSE ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUALA LUMPUR 001092 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/14/2016 TAGS: PREL PTER MARR PINS CE MY SUBJECT: SRI LANKA PEACE PROCESS: MALAYSIAN RESPONSE ON ADDITIONAL CONTACT GROUPS REF: A. STATE 94541 ¶B. KUALA LUMPUR 982 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i, David Shear for reasons 1.4 b and d. ¶1. (C) MFA Principal Assistant Secretary for South Asian Affairs Nik Mustafa Kamal Nik Ahmad told us June 14 that the governments of Sri Lanka and India had recently made approaches to the MFA to discuss cooperation in cutting off the Tigers from their funding and weapons sources. During the May 25-27 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) ministerial meeting in Malaysia (ref B) the Sri Lankan foreign minister had requested the Malaysian foreign minister to support "defense intelligence cooperation" to counter Tiger "soliciting for funds" in Malaysia. Nik Mustafa had just returned from a visit by the Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister/Defense Minister Najib Razak to India. There, the Indian government had "expressed concern about Tiger arms procurement in Thailand and Cambodia," and "said they want cooperation from us for arms shipment interdiction missions." ¶2. (C) Nik Mustafa was preparing for a June 19-26 trip to Sri Lanka for Joint Commission meetings with the Sri Lankan government. In response to ref A points, he said he would use that trip as an opportunity to discuss our proposal for anti-financing and anti-arms procurement contact groups with senior GOM officials, and to elicit Sri Lankan perspectives on the proposal. "Joining these groups would be a major policy decision", he noted, and said that senior-level GOM support would be needed for such a move. We emphasized that we sought Malaysian and other input on group membership, chairmanship, mechanisms, and focus. He pledged to meet with us after his return from Sri Lanka to discuss the Malaysian reaction to our proposals in greater detail. SHEAR