Krishna to visit Sri Lanka soon

(August 26, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) External Affairs Minister S M Krishna would soon be visiting Sri Lanka, where he intends to take up the issue of rehabilitating Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) with the Rajapaksa government. A senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs is also being despatched to the island nation.

The government would constantly monitor the situation in Sri Lanka and seek to ensure that the Indian assistance reached the beneficiaries. As such, Krishna said he felt there was no need for a parliamentary delegation to visit the island nation.

Responding to a calling attention motion on the situation regarding the Lankan Tamil IDPs and the steps taken by the government, Krishna pointed out the entire focus of the government was on doing all it could to assist the Lankan government to rehabilitate the IDPs. During his recent meeting with Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, PM Manmohan Singh took up the issue of the devolution package, to build upon the 13th Amendment and beyond.

"I will be visiting Sri Lanka at the end of this month or the beginning of next month," he informed.

Krishna said, "India has constantly held the view that the cessation of the conflict in Sri Lanka in May 2009, and the 2010 elections provided a historic opportunity to address all outstanding issues in a spirit of understanding and mutual accommodation and to work towards genuine national reconciliation. The expeditious resettlement and rehabilitation of IDPs is integral to this." Rejecting the charge of M Thambi Durai (AIADMK), Krishna pointed out that the delegation of MPs was that of the political parties. The Congress and DMK MPs had visited Sri Lanka, but it was open for other parties to join the delegation.

T R Baalu (DMK) said that even though the civil strife had ended, the causes that led to it still existed in Sri Lanka. The Tamils were still treated as second-class citizens. According to his own estimate, there were 52,000 Tamils, who were in the trauma of war.

Thambi Durai pointed out that AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa had been insisting that the rights of the Tamils should be respected and honoured, in order to enable them to lead a peaceful life. He lamented that the Lankan government was still not serious about a political solution to the problem of the Lankan Tamils. He along with A Ganeshmurthi of the MDMK asked the government to send an all-party delegation to Lanka to monitor the rehabilitation of the IDPs.