REFUGEE

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka is expected to record a surplus in its current account for the first time in 32 years, the central bank said Monday.
The island's lower export earnings have been offset by a slower import bill that has helped Colombo post a 393 million dollar surplus for the nine months to September, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka said.
"It is expected that this performance will continue through the fourth quarter as well and the current account would record a surplus in 2009 for the first time since 1977," the bank said in a statement.
The Colombo-based bank on Monday also left its key lending rates unchanged at a five-year low to help the economy recover after a decades-long ethnic conflict with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels ended in May.
The benchmark reverse repurchase rate was held at 9.75 percent, while repurchase rate was held at 7.5 percent, the bank said following its monthly monetary policy meeting.
"Inflationary pressures continue to remain subdued," the bank said adding that it expects consumer prices to climb to five percent this year, and between five to six percent in 2010. Inflation in November stood at 2.8 percent.
"Prospects for domestic economic activity have improved with the more favourable investment climate that now prevails," the bank said.
The island's economy is forecast to expand by 3.5 percent this year and six percent in 2010, the bank said.

A group of young Tamil from Jaffna and hundreds of students from Colombo spent five days together to share the anxieties and hurt caused by war, and express their desire to see ethnic groups and religious communities rebuild life together.
Some 35 young Tamils from the north and 700 students from the south, around 14-16 years of age, took part in a “peace and reconciliation’ programme organised by the National Peace Council (NPC) in cooperation with several schools, religious groups and civil society associations.

The event took place from 6 to 10 December and saw participants relay stories and stage representations about the war as well as perform songs and music that reflect their distinct ethnic and religious backgrounds (Hindu, Christian, Muslim and Buddhist).

NPC Executive Director Dr Jehan Perera told AsiaNews that after years of “polarisation in society, meeting face to face is important to break barriers. Kids from Jaffna staged a theatrical piece in which they described the last days of the war, a war that people in the south never saw because of censorship. This way kids from the south could understand what those in the north had to suffer. At the same time, the young people in the north could see that those in the south did not hate them, but wanted to be one with them.”

“Now there is talk of peace in Sri Lanka, but this is not the peace we seek,” NPC President Joe William said. We need “trust among ethnic groups and religious communities; trust between parents and children. Only this way can there be real peace.”

Dilhani Mudannayake, a student from Kotte (Colombo), was positive about the recent exchange. She said, “Let us hope we can meet in future again and that there will be real peace without barriers.”

For young Tamils from northern Sri Lanka, there is great need “to be free to go anywhere in the country and speak freely. We need for young Sinhalese

Wary of a Kosovo-type fate, Colombo wants to adopt a cautious approach to the issue of political settlement of Tamils, a senior Sri Lankan official told The Hindu here.

“We need to move forward on the process of empowerment. But one problem with federalism in a small country is that it is more subject to splitting. Take Kosovo. They [The West] said give autonomy and we will guarantee unity. But two years later they supported independence. Clearly a promise should be a promise. We have to be careful,” said Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights Rajiva Wijesinha.

Conceding the need to concentrate on the political question because the first few actions of Colombo since Independence were discriminatory, Mr. Wijesinha said that with a new crop of Tamil leaders coming up, it was time to strengthen grass-roots democracy to ensure that the issues agreed upon in 1987 began to be implemented.

“There is clearly need for a new beginning in the body politic. Unfortunately, there was discrimination and violence against the Tamils in the 1970s and early 1980s. The 1983 riots were appalling and had the government support as they were not quelled immediately. Some Tamils had very bitter experiences,” he acknowledged.

Colombo believed that the settlement of 1987 should have helped to resolve several issues, but it did not happen due largely to the intransigence of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as also to internal Sri Lankan politics. “Unfortunately over the next 20 years, the LTTE was able to present itself with greater success as the sole representative of the Tamil people. This was fiction. There were many Tamil groups, though they might not have had the heroic image of the LTTE. These groups became the greatest victims of the peace agreement of 2002. Unfortunately, the government was not strong enough to resist the decimation of these non-LTTE Tamil groups. The ground was swept under their feet,” Mr. Wijesinha said.

In the post-LTTE phase, what the displaced Sri Lankan Tamils returning home wanted was empowerment — the ability to decide all non-security aspects of government such as the social and educational systems, he said, pointing out that Jaffna now has a woman Mayor as does have Batticaloa in a 26-year-old.

“We have solved some initial problems but have not been implementing the provisions fast enough due to tension of the last 20 years,” the Secretary underlined.

Mr. Wijesinha pointed out that complaints of lack of job opportunities were no longer valid now that the private sector opened up in a big way.

A senior member of Mawbima Lanka says that the Cargills organization that carries out a publicity campaign claiming to help local producers and businessmen was in reality swindling the innocent local producers.

The source said Cargills has requested its local businessmen to give them a profit margin of 30-35% from the goods purchased by the company and takes between 30-90 days to pay for the goods purchased. Therefore, the source noted that Cargills was in the habit of purchasing goods at cheap prices without making any payment and earned profits by selling the items in their supermarkets.

According to the source such actions have resulted in many critical comments being made about the Mawbima Lanka Foundation.

COLOMBO - Sri Lankan police fired tear gas and water cannon on Wednesday to stop unemployed graduate protesters entering a high security area near President Mahinda Rajapaksa's official residence.

Rajapaksa has been riding a wave of popularity since the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels in May ended a 25-year civil year, but is now coming under pressure from protests and strikes by trade and student unions ahead of elections in early 2010.

Unemployed graduates, who have been staging rolling protests for the past 29 days demanding reasonable jobs, said they were attacked by the police when the tried to go to the president's house to meet him and discuss their problem.

"The Rajapaksa government's police attacked us with tear gas and water cannons," Dhammika Munasinghe, media spokesman for the Unemployed Graduate Union, told Reuters. "We will not move from this place up until we meet the president."

A Reuters witness said around 500 graduates were still unmoved at the nearest main junction after the clash, resulting in a huge traffic jam in the commercial heart of Colombo. The union said six graduates had been hospitalised.

Police said they were forced to use tear gas and water cannon to stop the protest march and defend themselves.

"They were trying to enter into a high security zone and they also attacked some police officers," Nimal Mediwake, a police spokesman, said.

The protesters are backed by a Marxist opposition party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a former Rajapaksa ally that helped him to win the presidency in 2005. Sri Lanka has a long history of protests and strikes by trade and student unions before elections, and the JVP is expected to use its widespread union influence to counter Rajapaksa's post-war popularity in the run-up to national polls.

COLOMBO, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's nationalist parties here on Sunday vowed to protect the island's military leadership by noting their protest with the government of the United States over the latter's alleged attempt to frame war crimes charges against the military leadership.

"The United States has no right to question (former Army Commander) General Sarath Fonseka. We will do everything possible to defeat the move both internally and externally," Somawansa Amarasinghe, the leader of the leftist JVP or the People's Liberation Front told reporters.

He was responding to a report that Fonseka, who led the government troops to victory over Tamil Tiger rebels had been asked to attend a voluntary investigation by the U.S. Homeland Security Department on the alleged war crimes during the final phase of the military battle against the rebels.

The nationalist JHU or the National Heritage Party accused the U.S. government of trying to use Fonseka as a source to implicate Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse on a war crimes trial.

"We note our strongest protest with the U.S. government on this attempt. We will make the United States learn an unforgettable lesson in Sri Lanka if they tried to frame the defense secretary," the JHU said in a statement.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse last month vowed not to submit any of his military commanders or officials for any war crimes trial.

The Sunday Times newspaper said that Fonseka who is visiting his daughters living in Oklahoma of the United States has been asked to come for an interview at the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday.

The paper said the government of Sri Lanka had provided legal assistance to Fonseka.

The U.S. State Department presented a report to Congress last month containing details of alleged "atrocities" by both the Sri Lankan troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the final stages of the war in May this year.

The report prepared by the War Crimes Office in the State Department lists 170 incidents between May 2 and 18. It is based mostly on internal reports to Washington from the U. S. Embassy in Colombo, satellite imagery, international relief organizations and media outlets.

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka has called on US authorities to drop plans to interview the island's military commander over allegations of war crimes against ethnic Tamil rebels, an official said Sunday.
The Colombo government held "very high-level" talks to prevent General Sarath Fonseka, currently visiting Oklahoma, from being quizzed over his conduct during the conflict against the Tamil Tigers, the official said.
The privately-run Sunday Times newspaper here said Fonseka had been asked to present himself for an interview with the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday.
The move "prompted fears in Colombo that Washington is asserting its legal authority over the 'war crimes' report" released last month, the paper said referring to a State Department dossier on alleged war crimes.
The report outlined excesses by security forces and Tiger rebels during the final stages of fighting earlier this year. The report, submitted to the US Congress, refers to Fonseka's having overstepped his brief.
The Sunday Times said the Sri Lankan diplomatic mission there was already providing legal assistance to Fonseka.
Fonseka is a US Green Card holder and travelled to the US last week to visit his two daughters. He also addressed a group of Sri Lankans in Washington last week and took credit for leading the battle to crush the Tigers.
The US embassy in Colombo declined comment.
The State Department report cited allegations that Tamil rebels recruited children and that government forces broke a ceasefire as well as killed rebels who surrendered.
It also cited reports in which it was claimed government troops or government-backed paramilitaries "abducted and in some instances then killed Tamil civilians, particularly children and young men."
The report covered the period from January -- when fighting intensified -- until the end of May, when Sri Lankan troops defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at the end of a decades-old separatist conflict.
Sri Lanka last week announced it was appointing a panel to investigate the allegations after initially dismissing the report as "unsubstantiated."
The island's government managed to stave off a UN human rights council debate on alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity thanks to the backing of veto-holders China and Russia.
The UN has said that up to 7,000 civilians perished during the last four months of fighting and accused both the military and the Tigers of not doing enough to protect civilians.

Sri Lankan Youth Empowerment Minister Arumugam Thondaman meets Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi at his residence in Chennai on Thursday.
CHENNAI: Despite the difficulties, the Sri Lankan government was fully committed to rehabilitating and resettling all the people in the camps for the Internally Displaced People (IDP), according to Sri Lankan Minister for Socio Economic Development and Youth Empowerment Arumugam Thondaman.

“Around 58,000 people have been resettled after the visit of the delegation of MPs from Tamil Nadu and in the second phase it will be about 46,000 people,” he told The Hindu on Thursday. So far a total of 81,301 people have been resettled and 1,86,446 people are in the camps waiting for their turn.

The Minister said the government could not fix a timeframe for resettlement as it depended on providing housing and completing demining operations.

“As soon as the demining is done we will be able to resettle all the people. Another team is going to come to help us with demining, thanks to the Indian government. If we get some help in housing, we will move quickly.”

The Minister pointed out that demining was still going on in countries such as Croatia, and Sri Lanka had fared far better in this regard. “The government has taken it as a duty.”

Asked what the government had done for the people to earn their livelihood, the Minister said besides ration for six months under the world food programme, the government had started giving seeds for cultivation and granted subsidy for fertilizer.

“Even to prepare the land, we are helping. We are giving agricultural tools. The land must be ready. We cannot do the spoon feeding. We must create an environment in which they will be able to stand on their legs,” he stressed.

Mr. Thondaman rejected the allegation that the government was not genuinely interested in resettling the Tamils in their areas, saying some people were trying to get political mileage by raising such allegations. “The genuineness of the government is exemplified by the progress. There are shortcomings. We don’t say that we are 100 per cent perfect.”

Besides agriculture, the government is going to create self-employment scheme for the people, making use of the vocational training given in the camps.

“Everything will not come overnight. There are priorities. Their livelihood is important. Before that they should settle down there. That is the issue today,” he said.

While return of the Tamils settled outside the country would turn around the resettlement areas in no time, the Minister said he was not confident about their quick return.

“The government has invited them to return. But I don’t think they will. Their children have grown up there. They might come forward to create a small base, because their relations are here,” he said.

Asked about his meeting with Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, Mr Thondaman, said he was very much concerned about the welfare of the Tamils.

“When I explained him about the progress, he was reassured. We sought some help so that we could speed up the whole thing,” he said, adding that if any some social organisations were interested in helping, they were welcome to do so.

“President Mahinda Rajapaksa is keen,” he said.

Mr Thondaman, who is also the general secretary of the Ceylon Workers Congress, representing the plantation workers, said he was looking forward to help from the Indian government in education and housing. “The Sri Lankan government has provided the infrastructure and now their priority has turned towards IDP camps. So we need India’s help,” he said.

COLOMBO: Noted Sri Lankan Tamil scholar, Professor Karthigesu Sivathamby, is yet to make up his mind about attending the International Classical Tamil Conference to be held in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu in June 2010.
“It is too early to say. There are eight more months to go. But some people are trying to force the issue on me,” he told Express here on Tuesday.
However, he indicated that he was interested in the success of the conference.
He pointed out that he had already sent a note to the organisers suggesting five topics that the conclave could discuss profitably.
Professor Sivathamby seemed to be disturbed by the reports in the Tamil Nadu media that he might not attend the conference, which prompted CM M Karunanidhi to issue a statement saying that the respected scholar would indeed participate in the meet.
Asked if he anticipated any resistance from the Sri Lankan government and if that was why he was not committing himself, Prof Sivathamby was quick to say ‘No’.
“There is no trouble at all from the Sri Lankan government. In fact, they would want me to attend it,” he said

COLOMBO - SRI Lanka may consider joining the global treaty banning landmines following the government's defeat of separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, the army chief said on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka had previously refused to sign up to the 1997 Ottawa Convention against landmines, arguing that the military could not unilaterally abandon mines in their bloody fight against the Tamil Tigers.

'With the end of conflict (in May), we have had the opportunity to review Sri Lanka's position,' Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya said.

The Sri Lankan military estimates that there could be 1.5 million mines scattered across the island's north, Lt. Gen Jayasuriya told a seminar in the capital Colombo. He said that the army had maintained maps marking its minefields, but the Tigers had not.

Some 277,000 people were displaced during the final stages of the fighting and now live in government-run camps, where they will stay until the military clears villages of landmines and screens the

COLOMBO: Surveillance cameras at Colombo Airport paid for by the Australian Government have been linked to a spate of extra-judicial arrests.

Reports of detentions at the airport are driving Sri Lankan Tamils to flee the country in boats rather than by air, a well-placed official says.

A prominent Tamil MP, Mano Ganesan, said at least 29 people had been detained at the airport this month. A Government official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the figure and said 11 had been released.

Mr Ganesan said no notification had been given to the families of those detained. ''These CCTV cameras are being used to monitor the movement of Tamil people. Through the cameras they identify suspects and then the policemen are accosting people. No one knows if they will be able to catch their flight.''

A Sri Lankan worker for a non-governmental organisation told the Herald that humanitarian workers and human rights activists were also increasingly wary about using the airport.

''There is definitely a lot of fear now that you will be stopped at the airport,'' he said.

''There is a sense that a screening process is going on.''

The arrests at the airport meant many young Tamils had opted for boats rather than departure by air, one official told the Herald, on condition of anonymity.

''These disappearances at the airport are making people very worried,'' the official said. ''This is driving people to boats.''

A spokeswoman for the Australian high commission in Colombo confirmed that ''in co-operation with the Government of Sri Lanka the Department of Immigration and Citizenship funded the installation of closed-circuit television cameras at Bandaranaike International Airport, Colombo, which was completed in April 2008''.

The aid is aimed at improving Sri Lanka's border security.

No one from Sri Lanka's Department for Immigration and Emigration was available to comment on the use of the airport surveillance cameras yesterday.

A 25-year civil war between the army and the separatist Tamil Tigers ended with the military defeat of the rebels in May.

Mr Ganesan said Tamils were being arrested at the airport without justification and this was adding to post-war tensions.

''Even Tamils leaving the country with legitimate visas for education, business or personal reasons are being harassed and detained,'' he said.

''It is very difficult to tell the difference between arrest and abduction. When people get arrested at the airport, or elsewhere in the city, the police do not inform family members or follow the correct rules and regulations. They just take them away to various investigative units.''

The Government says many of the reports of disappearances are false and intended to discredit it and its allies.

But Mr Ganesan, MP for an electorate in Colombo and leader of a political party called the Democratic People's Front, said the number of people seized at the airport had increased significantly since the end of the war.

''People who want to go out of the country are now being arrested; people who are coming into the country from various parts of the world are also being arrested, and all of them are Tamils.''

Mr Ganesan said he knew of families who were searching police stations in Colombo for information about relatives who had disappeared at Bandaranaike, the country's only international airport.

The climate of fear among Tamils has underpinned the recent increase in the number seeking asylum in Australia.

COLOMBO — The Sri Lankan government rejected on Monday fresh accusations that Tamil Tiger separatist leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was executed after surrendering to security forces.
Sri Lanka's military announced on May 18 the killing of Prabhakaran, who led a 37-year campaign for an independent homeland for minority Tamils in the majority Sinhalese country.
The Sri Lanka Guardian, a US-based website that describes itself as an independent news organisation, reported over the weekend that Prabhakaran had surrendered, but was tortured and killed by the army.
It cited three sources, including a bodyguard who said he had escaped the final offensive and fled the country as well as officials from the Sri Lankan intelligence service and the defence ministry.
But in a statement, the defence ministry said there was a campaign to publish "concocted stories" in a bid to drag Sri Lanka's military before war crimes tribunals.
"A new version of the consequences that led to Prabhakaran's death has been concocted, involving the reputation of senior officers who gave leadership to the final battles against Tiger terrorists," the ministry said.
Both the Sri Lankan military and the Tiger rebels have previously said that Prabhakaran fought to the end.
His body was shown on national television a day later, with a deep cut to his skull. The cut has not been officially explained, but the army said he was killed in a gunbattle with government forces.
The latest claim came as a US State Department report said that both Sri Lankan government forces and Tamil rebels may have violated the laws of war this year during the culmination of their decades-old armed conflict.
Among the claims detailed in the report was the accusation that, in the final few days of fighting, senior Tamil Tiger leaders reached a surrender agreement with government forces but were then executed.
However, the report made no mention of any surrender by Prabhakaran.
Sri Lanka, which has rejected the US report as baseless, said a propaganda campaign had been launched with the "sinister motive of trying to take the security forces to a war crimes tribunal".
The United Nations has said that up to 7,000 civilians perished in the first four months of this year while up to 100,000 people may have died during the entire conflict.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A Sri Lankan court on Monday ordered the release of a Web site owner who spent 19 months in detention on government accusations of supporting separatist rebels, the man's attorney said.
Vetrivel Jasiharan was released after the state attorney withdrew the charges, said Jasiharan's lawyer, K.V. Thavarasha. The state attorney did not give a reason for the withdrawal and could not be reached Monday evening.
Jasiharan's now-defunct site, Outreachsl.com, discussed the political rights of the country's ethnic minority Tamils. He was arrested in March 2008 on allegations of supporting the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, who were defeated in May after a 25-year civil war that left between 80,000 and 100,000 people dead.
Jasiharan had been in detention for 19 months pending his court hearing.
Thavarasha said Jasiharan's lawyers reciprocated Monday by withdrawing a case accusing the state of illegal arrest, detention and torture of their client to get a confession.
Many local and international press freedom groups have accused Sri Lankan authorities of muzzling the media with a tough anti-terror law during and after the civil war.
In May, President Barack Obama singled out Sri Lankan journalist J.S. Tissainayagam as an example of persecuted journalists around the world.
Tissainayagam, whose articles criticized the government for its conduct in the war, was sentenced last month to 20 years in jail with hard labour on the same charges as Jasiharan. His sentence drew widespread international criticism. He is trying to appeal.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has said at least 11 Sri Lankan reporters were forced to flee the country in the past year, and Amnesty International has said at least 14 Sri Lankan journalists and media workers have been killed since the beginning of 2006

Colombo: LTTE's slain supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was jealous of educated people and wanted to destroy the Tamil intellectuals for his survival, a Tamil leader has claimed.

"The LTTE was an outfit with uneducated people. The top leadership of the LTTE including Prabhakaran, Thamilselvam and many more leaders were uneducated. They did not respect the educated Tamils," Emelda Sukumar, the Government Agent (GA) of Killinochchi and Mullaittivu, has said.

"Their (LTTE leaders) intention was to destroy the Tamil intellectuals for their survival. They were jealous of the decent and educated people," Sukumar, the first Tamil woman to be appointed as a GA, told the state-run 'Sunday Observer' in an interview.

Sukumar, who has served for over eight years in the region, said the LTTE could not survive mainly because "they undermined the values of the educated people" and added the LTTE leaders were educated up to grade five or eight.

"Sukumar, who served as Mullaittiviu GA while under LTTE control and saw their 'rise and fall' and how they exploited the money sent by the Tamil Diaspora, said the Tamils who funded LTTE should compensate Wanni Tamils who are affected badly due to the LTTE terror," the paper said.

On the allegations of military excesses against LTTE, she said it was not true. "I have seen how the military reacted to LTTE firing. The security forces carried out their missions after careful surveillances of the terrains. They always took the correct targets."

Colombo - Former child soldiers in the Tamil rebel movement now in custody of the government after the rebels' defeat earlier this year are to carry on with their education in Sri Lanka's capital, Justice Ministry officials said Wednesday.
The first batch of 168 students, including 76 females, arrived in the capital from their rehabilitation centres in the north to resume their disrupted education, officials said.
The former soldiers, some of whom had weapons training and fought the Sri Lankan security forces, will be enrolled in a popular Tamil- language school on the outskirts of Colombo where they will sit side-by-side with other students in class.
The students, aged 13 to 19, had their education interrupted at various stages, with some of them not attending school for more than five years.
The ex-combatants have so far undergone general rehabilitation at one of the camps in the north and at another camp closer to the capital.
A second batch of 100 more former child soldiers is also due to be allowed carry on their education.
At present 10,000 former rebels are in custody and the government is looking into various programmes to rehabilitate most of them, but some others will be tried in the courts.
Government forces fought the defeated the rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after the entire leadership was killed on May 19.

Funds collected for the Uthuru Mithuru railway project has not been deposited in any bank account, it is learnt. The issue came into light with Sri Lanka Rupavahini donating Rs. 50 lakhs for the Uthuru Mithuru project.

It is reliable learnt that the Rupavahini officials are faced with a great difficulty in giving the cash for the project as there was no bank account to deposit the funds. Money was even collected from students island wide for the project.

Colombo , The government has stepped-up the resettlement of the Tamil civilians displaced following the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, with 2,500 members of the community housed in Vavuniya leaving for resettlement in their native lands in Jaffna.

The Tamil civilians were displaced during the military offensive that crushed the LTTE in May and ended Sri Lanka&aposs decades-old civil war, which killed at least 80,000 people.
As many as 2,500 people housed in&aposwelfare villages&aposin Vavuniya left for resettlement in their native lands in Jaffna. The" Uthuru Wasanthaya" Task Force operating on the instructions of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa has expedited the resettlement process, an official statement said today.
The programme is being mooted through the Government Agents (GAs) of Jaffna and Vavuniya and under the supervision of chief of the task force and senior presidential advisor and parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa.
K Ganesh, Government Agents of Jaffna, said the civilians will be transported daily from the welfare villages to Jaffna for resettlement that begun yesterday.
In addition, 150 people of 61 families from the Vavuniya district and 300 people of 87 families from the Mannar district were also resettled yesterday.
Meanwhile, the government has speeded up plans to provide electricity to the entire northern province in the next three years.
Ministry sources said said 13 power projects are to be inaugurated in the province. The projects, to be implemented at a cost of over SLR 106 million, will benefit more than 800 families in the Vavuniya, Killinochchi, Mullaitivu and Mannar districts in the Wanni.

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on Wednesday called for continuous interactions with Tamil Nadu to strengthen and enhance the “long, historical relationship that happily exists” between the people of the island nation and the State.

The Minister made the observation in the course of his interaction with the visiting Tamil Nadu parliamentary delegation. He said interactions with Tamil Nadu would take place through the good offices of the Government of India.

Led by the former Union Minister T.R. Baalu, the delegation left for Chennai at the end of its five-day visit after a tour of Jaffna, government-run temporary relief camps for the nearly 2.5 lakh war displaced people in the north and hill country where a majority of the Indian origin Sri Lankan Tamils work in the plantation sector.

The delegation called on President Mahinda Rajapaksa and representatives of the Tamil and Muslim parties. It discussed the issues of resettlement of the war displaced at the earliest and the need for a permanent solution to the ethnic strife in the island nation with maximum devolution of powers to the province.

Mr. Bogollagama told a news conference, after his meeting with the delegation, that among the issues of common interest were intrusions by Indian fishermen and punitive action by the Sri Lankan Navy; exchange of prisoners in each other country’s jails; resumption of the ferry service between Rameswaram and Talaimannar; connectivity between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka and the question of the war displaced housed in camps in the north.

Mr. Bogollagama said the talks with the Tamil Nadu MPs were held in a cordial manner. “We are friends. There is no room for confrontation.”

To a question on the main issue raised by the Indian delegation, the Minister said it wanted the refugees in the camps sent back home as soon as possible.

The Sri Lankan government, on its part, demonstrated to the visiting MPs that it was “transparent” on the issue of refugees and “inclusive” in its approach to the political questions relating to the Tamils.

Mr. Bogollagama said Presidential Adviser Basil Rajapaksa had explained the rehabilitation plan as well as the demining programme that was under way. Mr. Basil Rajapaksa was of the view that it was not right to insist that the refugees be sent back to their villages and farms when these places were bristling with landmines.

Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa explained to the MPs that the threat from the LTTE still remained given that many unidentified cadres were still in camps, and cleverly hidden arms dumps were being periodically discovered in areas in the Wanni, formally under LTTE control.

Asked whether the MPs were convinced with the government’s presentation, the Minister said: “I do not know what they will say when they get back, but I believe they were convinced.”

On insistence by mediapersons, Mr. Baalu merely said the delegation was allowed to go wherever it wanted and talk freely to the people.

Asked if he was satisfied with the condition of the refugees, the DMK MP declined to answer. He said the delegation would submit a report to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.

“Sri Lankan MPs insulted”
Separately, Democratic People’s Front Leader Mano Ganesan said Sri Lankan MPs were insulted. While Tamil Nadu MPs were allowed to visit the IDP camps, Sri Lankan MPs were not, he said. He said one of the MPs in the delegation had accepted LTTE chief V. Prabakaran as his leader and stood for the division of Sri Lanka.

President emphasises that de-mining must be done before any resettlement: report

Crowding in centres will ease soon with increased resettlement: Basil Rajapaksa

COLOMBO: The 10-member parliamentary delegation from Tamil Nadu on Tuesday called on Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and exchanged views on the rehabilitation of the 2.5-lakh war displaced housed in government-run camps and the contours of a political solution to the ethnic conflict.

A report on the meeting posted on the Presidential Secretariat web site said: “They came with a different mindset but having visited the welfare centres for IDPs [Internally Displaced Persons], they are returning with a more positive attitude, said [the] Tamil Nadu MPs when they met [the] President.”

Here on an invitation from Mr. Rajapaksa, the delegation on Sunday visited the refugee camps in Vavuniya, and the Jaffna peninsula and on Monday the plantations in the hill district, where the British indentured Indian-origin Tamils are settled.

Stress on acceptance by all communities
“With regard to discussions on a political settlement to the ethnic question, the President said any settlement must be one that is accepted by all communities and by Sri Lanka’s neighbour,” the report said.

Further, Mr. Rajapaksa emphasised the multi-ethnic nature of Sri Lankan society, referring to the 65 per cent of Tamils who live outside the provinces of north and east, mostly in and around Colombo.

The delegation expressed fears about the coming monsoon rains but it was assured that steps had been taken to ensure that no hardships were caused to the IDPs.

Senior adviser to President Basil Rajapaksa told the delegation that within two days the crowding in the centres would start reducing with increased resettlement.

The report said Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa told the delegation that he was glad that the MPs came because it was important for people to assess the situation themselves as there were many misconceptions and false information being spread regarding the IDPs.

“They were concerned about the speedy resettlement of IDPs but were also appreciative of the actions taken by the government so far, in this direction. The President emphasised that de-mining must be done first before any resettlement,” it said.

The delegation thanked the President for the invitation and appreciated the arrangements made for its visit. The MPs also met Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremenayaka and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

Before returning to Chennai on Wednesday the delegation will call on Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The UNP had welcomed the move of the delegation to meet the IDPs in the camps. In a statement, UNP organiser Ram said the visit should help the displaced persons come out of the camps and live a normal life.

“Before the war all communities lived amicably, which was disrupted by the cruel war. Now that the war is over, steps should be taken to resettle the IDPs and accelerate their return to normal life. The south Indian MPs must play a vital role towards achieving this goal,” the UNP statement said.

Meanwhile, English daily The Island, quoting unnamed government officials, said there was absolutely no truth in the allegation that it was planned to settle the Sinhalese in Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu districts.

‘A barefaced lie’
The charge was levelled by the Tamil National Alliance at a meeting with the visiting parliamentarians at India House on Saturday. “This was nothing but a barefaced lie, ministerial sources told The Island adding that the TNA had recently pledged to work with the government to resettle the war displaced. This understanding had been reached at a meeting chaired by Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa and Mr. Basil Rajapaksa, the senior official in charge of resettlement and rehabilitation.”

“The TNA had also alleged that action had not been taken to clear mines in the Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu districts. Military sources said Sri Lankan forces and INGOs engaged in humanitarian mine clearing operations were deployed west of A9. Once they completed clearing operations, humanitarian de-mining operations could be stepped up east of A9,” the daily said.

Colombo

The delegation of MPs from Tamil Nadu today visited the picturesque Nuwara Eliya and Hatton Town in Sri Lanka's Central Province and interacted with Tamil origin plantation workers there. Nuwara Eliya is an important location for tea cultivation in Sri Lanka, one of the largest exporters of the commodity in the world.

The team met some of the Tamil workers of Indian origin in the plantations. According to sources, the Indian MPs will spend the night in the area to interact and hear about the workers'living conditions in the plantation sector.

Many tea plantation workers from India are Tamils brought over to Sri Lanka by the British in the 19th century as labourers for the expanding tea estates.

Earlier, the Indian MPs from Tamil Nadu on a mission here to ascertain the living conditions of displaced Tamils after the end of the war, travelled to Hatton, a small town, and visited the Thondaman vocational centre.

The centre provides training to plantation youths for gainful employment opportunities. The ten MPs, who visited the relief camps for dispalced Tamils in Vavuniya yesterday, are the first political delegation from India to tour Sri Lanka after the 30-year-old civil war ended in May.