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Civilians are India’s concern: Menon

COLOMBO: Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said here on Thursday the immediate concern of India in Sri Lanka was to minimise the humanitarian crisis and said New Delhi was looking at ways to step up food and medical relief supplies to the stranded in the war zone.

Mr. Menon, currently here to participate in the SAARC Standing Committee meeting, told reporters that he had discussed with his Sri Lankan interlocutors various issues related to the humanitarian crisis and bilateral relations.

He said India and Sri Lanka had agreed to work together to address the urgent medical needs of the civilians.

India would send a full-fledged emergency medical unit with hospital, surgeons and support staff and necessary equipment and supplies. This would be augmented.

Separately, an Editor of the Colombo-based Tamil daily Sudar Oli N. Vithatharan was picked up by police for questioning triggering panic among the media community.

Initially, there was confusion over the arrest. It was presumed that he had been abducted.

In a statement, Reporters Without Borders quoted the Sri Lanka Information Minister as saying the Editor had been picked up in connection with some calls he had made on the night of the last LTTE air raids on Colombo and he was being “treated well” by the police.

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