Advertisement

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was "receptive" to the concerns raised by a five-member delegation of pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians from Sri Lanka who called on him on Friday.

South Block sources told this correspondent that Dr. Singh informed the MPs that India had offered humanitarian assistance to Tamil civilians affected by the resumption of hostilities on the island nation. At the same time, New Delhi's position remained that the unity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka could not be jeopardised and any solution had to be found within this framework.

The sources said supplies provided by India were lying in Chennai as Colombo did not seem very interested in lifting them. The supplies had to be routed through the Sri Lankan Government.

Gajen Ponnambalam, one of the MPs (R. Sampanthan, Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran and Selva Adaiklanathan being the others), said India was very concerned at the situation there.

He quoted Dr. Singh as saying that India had on several occasions conveyed its concerns to the Sri Lankan Government about the state of human rights of Tamil civilians. India was watching the situation closely, he stated.

The delegation alleged at its meeting that the Sri Lankan Government was using food as a "weapon of war" in the deep humanitarian crisis.

Dr. Singh was told there was a "backward movement" in the political process, Mr. Ponnambalam said. The MPs felt that the Sri Lankan Supreme Court's ruling to "de-merge" the northern and eastern provinces was a "contrived decision."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail