India to aid displaced people in Sri Lanka

October 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Monday termed the central government's decision to send a team of MPs exclusively of the ruling coalition in Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka to observe the condition of displaced Tamils living in camps there as "partisan". The central government selected the delegation "without taking MPs from the opposition parties like AIADMK in Tamil Nadu", a statement from the CPI-M politburo said.

October 6th, 2009 COLOMBO - A British cabinet minister began a two-day visit to Sri Lanka Tuesday to assess the government's resettlement plans for an estimated 250,000 people displaced by the country's civil war, officials said. Mike Foster, British Parliamentary under secretary of state for international development, was scheduled to visit refugee camps in the north, a British-funded child soldier rehabilitation centre in Vavuniya and a demining programme also backed by Britain.

September 23rd, 2009 NEW YORK - India has pressed for quicker rehabilitation and resettlement of some 300,000 Tamils displaced in Sri Lanka. External Affairs Minister S.M.

September 17th, 2009 CHENNAI - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has reiterated the central government's commitment to rehabilitation of internally displaced civilians (IDP) in northern Sri Lanka. In his reply to Karunanidhi's letters dated Aug 14 and 17, Singh has said: "We fully share your concern for the welfare and wellbeing of the displaced Tamil population in Sri Lanka.

September 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A team of agricultural experts from India will visit Sri Lanka next week to help in rehabilitation of displaced people in the north of the island nation, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said here Thursday.

July 30th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is willing to give more funds, besides the Rs.500 crore (around $100 million) which India has already pledged, for resettlement of around 300,000 civilians displaced by the conflict in Sri Lanka, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said Thursday.

July 22nd, 2009 PHUKET - Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Wednesday said that the early resettlement of some 300,000 Tamils displaced in Sri Lanka will get "top billing" in talks with Colombo.

July 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI/CHENNAI - Concerned over the plight of the displaced in Sri Lanka's northeast, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Monday announced Rs.500 crore ($100 million) for the rehabilitation and relief of the island nation's internally displaced persons (IDPs). Expressing concern over the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka, Mukherjee announced an allocation of $100 million for the welfare of the around 300,000 Tamil civilians housed in various camps in Sri Lanka following the end of the decades-long insurgency.

July 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - After providing medical services to thousands displaced by war, Indian soldiers will now go to Sri Lanka to help de-mine areas once held by the Tamil Tigers, it was announced Monday. The military personnel will be part of Indian experts who will assist authorities in Sri Lanka to detect and defuse thousands of mines laid by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told the media here.

June 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday urged the Sri Lankan government to show imagination and courage to meet Tamil aspirations following the defeat of the Tamil Tigers. Speaking in parliament, the prime minister said India had a deep and abiding interest in the well being of the Tamil people in that country.

June 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - With the Tamil Tigers decimated, India Thursday pledged to support initiatives aimed at finding a permanent political solution in Sri Lanka to ensure equal rights to the Tamil minority. "We will support initiatives in Sri Lanka which can lead to a permanent political solution of the conflict there, and ensure that all Sri Lankan communities, especially the Tamils, feel secure and enjoy equal rights so that they can lead a life of dignity and self-respect," President Pratibha Patil told a joint session of the Indian parliament.

May 27th, 2009 GENEVA - The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted Wednesday a resolution which praised the government of Sri Lanka for its commitment to human rights, while condemning the Tamil Tiger rebels. The resolution, tabled by Sri Lanka itself and other nations, including China, Cuba and Egypt, also allows the government to let aid agencies' have access to camps for the internally displaced "as may be appropriate".

May 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - With Sri Lanka's military offensive against the Tamil Tigers coming to an end, India said Tuesday it would send send special envoys to Colombo and is also preparing a Rs.500 crore (Rs.5 billion) package to help in the rehabilitation of Tamil civilians displaced in the fighting. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, reacting to the news of the end of the military operation in Sri Lanka, told reporters that while 'the rehabilitation of the Internally Displaced Persons' (Tamil civilians) was urgently required, India was also looking at the Sri Lankan government to ensure a 'political solution to fulfil the legitimate aspirations of the ethnic minorities including the Tamils'.

May 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Now that the 'conventional conflict' in Sri Lanka has ended with the killing of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, India Monday said it was time to address root causes of the strife and called for 'political steps towards the effective devolution of power' to all communities. 'In a telephone conversation with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee earlier today, the president of Sri Lanka confirmed that armed resistance by the LTTE has come to an end and that LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead,' external affairs ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said here.

April 30th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The United Nations on Thursday termed the conditions in camps for displaced Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka as "far from satisfactory" while stating that its top priority was to get an estimated 50,000 civilians still trapped in the war zone to safety. "Although the conditions are very far from satisfactory in that camp and in those transit centres, I think with huge efforts we're beginning to get a grip on that and the basics will be there to allow people to at least survive," Holmes said.