The Sri Lankan Government last week assured a ten-member delegation of Indian Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu that 58,000 internally-displaced Sri Lankan Tamils in camps will be sent back to their native places within 15 days. The remaining Tamils would return gradually.
This was announced by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi on the return of the delegation from Colombo. He said, totally, there were about 2.5 lakh people in the camps. He said, the delegation members in their talks with Sri Lankan leaders including President Rajapaksa demanded that the internally-displaced Tamils be sent to their homes before the advent of rains.
The delegation also raised the issue of attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy on Tamil Nadu fishermen and furnished evidence to this effect. Colombo agreed to ensure that such incidents do not recur.
The delegation also held besides holding separate talks with Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama, 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. The delegation also visited the refugee camps in Vavuniya and the Jaffna peninsula. 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. It was told that crowding in the centres would start reducing within two days with increased resettlement.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Government has dismissed a report that it planned to settle the Sinhalese in Tamil-majority Kilinochchi and Mullaithivu districts. The charge was levelled by the Tamil National Alliance at a meeting with the visiting parliamentary delegation.
Political observers say it is reassuring that a positive and statesmanlike initiative by Karunanidhi, has been matched by a like response from the Sri Lankan President. The five-day visit of the ten-member delegation of Tamil MPs for first-hand information about the conditions of the nearly 250,000 war-displaced Tamils has contributed to a better understanding of the prevailing situation in the island nation. By enabling the delegation freely to visit the refugee camps in Vavuniya district, Jaffna town, and plantation areas where Indian origin Tamils are settled, Sri Lanka has demonstrated a far-sighted willingness to accommodate the sensitivities of political parties in Tamil Nadu. In concrete terms, the mission can be commended for obtaining an assurance from President Rajapaksa that 58,000 displaced Tamils in the camps would be returned to their homes in a fortnight’s time and that the remaining Tamils would be resettled gradually, as soon as de-mining operations permitted a safe return to their areas.
“Sri Lanka has lodged a strong protest with the Norwegian Government…”
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has lodged a strong protest with the Norwegian Government over a reported meeting held by the LTTE’s Advisory Committee in Oslo where it said an action plan was formulated to announce a trans-national Government of Tamil Eelam. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama summoned Norwegian Ambassador Tore Hatrem to the Foreign Office in Colombo on Oct. 14 to lodge the protest He was told that Colombo viewed with serious concern that the LTTE and its proxies were meeting and operating in Norway. Bogollagama informed the Norwegian Ambassador that the Government has reports of a meeting taking place in Oslo by LTTE front organizations earlier this month where an action plan for the establishment of a provisional LTTE Government was worked out. Hatrem rubbished the notion of a transnational Government and emphasized that the Norwegian Government would not tolerate any activity against a friendly country.
