India assures Sri Lanka support for IDP resettlement
March 7, 2010 07:15 pm
India today assured Sri Lanka of its support in resettling nearly
300,000 Tamil civilians displaced by the civil war in the island-nation and
pushed for a political settlement when Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao called on
President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo.
Rao met Rajapaksa over lunch at
Janadhipathi Manidiraya and congratulated him on his landslide victory in the
Jan 26 presidential polls.
This was the first high-level contact
between New Delhi and Colombo since the Sri Lankan presidential
polls.
“She expressed India’s
willingness to continue assisting Sri Lankain the resettlement of the IDPs (internally displaced persons),” an official
statement from the Sri Lankan presidential secretariat said in Colombo.
“India was also keen to assist in
the complete restoration of the railway line in the north,” it said.
The statement said that in her meeting
with Rajapaksa, Rao was of the view that Sri Lanka had made considerable
success in resettling the displaced families in the north and the east, with
the number now standing at less than 70,000.
In her discussions, Rao stressed the need
for a political settlement and devolution of powers to address the aspirations
of the Tamil minority, official sources said in New Delhi.
The two sides discussed problems faced by
fisherman from both countries, the proposed coal-based power generation project
in Trincomalee, and the necessity for understanding between India and Sri
Lanka on the protection of the environment and the
eco-systems, the statement in Colombosaid.
Rao, who had earlier served in Colombo as India’s high commissioner, conveyed an
invitation from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Rajapaksa to visit India soon.
India has allocated Rs.500 crore for the
relief and rehabilitation of the war-hit Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka.
IANS
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