Rajapakse’s Visit

COMMENTARY

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s visit to India offered the Union Government with an opportunity to highlight the plight of the Sri Lankan Tamils in the island state as well as demand the resettlement of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) and successful implementation of a reconciliation plan for the war-ravaged state, apart from urging for concrete steps to guarantee an overall political settlement of the ethnic problem. The widespread protests in Tamil Nadu against the visit in the light of all that the Rajapakse Government has done in the recent past to marginalise the Tamils in Sri Lanka while baring its racist fangs provided a fitting backdrop to the trip and PM Manmohan Singh is learnt to have presented, during the talks, the ethnic problem in the proper perspective (broadly on the lines of the documents adopted at a people’s convention on the issue in the Capital a day before the Sri Lankan President’s arrival in New Delhi on
June 8).

A meeting between Rajapakse and the MPs from Tamil Nadu was utilised by the latter to magnify the Sri Lankan Tamils’ “continuing ordeal even after a year of cessation of hostilities”. They also demanded that Rajapakse should translate into reality the 13th Amendment for devolution of powers in letter and spirit. While the Sri Lankan President admitted that there had been some delay in rehabilitation of the Sri Lankan Tamils displaced by the civil war, he set a three-month deadline to resettle those still staying in relief camps. But on the issue of devolution he did not come out with any concrete assurance.

The visit culminated with the release of a lengthy India-Sri Lanka Joint Declaration with India offering financial and infrastructural support directed towards Sri Lankan Tamils inhabiting the northern parts of the island state. Seven agreements were signed to boost bilateral cooperation across a range of areas—from security, power, railways to cultural exchange.

PM Manmohan Singh pointed to the “historic opportunity” which had opened up following the recent electoral victories of Rajapakse in the presidential and parliamentary polls as well as the cessation of hostilities, and observed that a meaningful devolution package, building upon the 13th Amendment, would create necessary conditions for a lasting political settlement. To this, Rajapakse reiterated his resolve to evolve a political settlement compatible to all communities and acting as a catalyst to create conditions wherein the people of Sri Lanka could lead their lives in peace, justice and dignity.

According to Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, “the PM emphasised the need for urgent steps to resettle the remaining IDPs and urged Sri Lanka to undertake speedy rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka”. The talks resulted in Sri Lanka agreeing to Indian assistance for a programme of constructing 50,000 houses for IDPs in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. It was further decided that India would establish consulates in Jaffna nd Hambantota, take up several reconstruction projects in the North and East including rebuilding of railway infrastructure, rehabilitating the Kakensathurai harbour and Palay Airport, and extend a $ 200 million line of credit to set up an NTPC-CEB joint venture for a 500 MW Thermal Power Plant at Trincomalee in Eastern Sri Lanka.

Observer