Time to address root causes of Sri Lankan conflict: India

June 14th, 2009 CHENNAI - Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has said Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will be told by New Delhi to fulfill his promise to rehabilitate displaced Tamils and grant equal rights to the minority community in the island-nation.

June 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Sri Lankan Tamils are unhappy with India's stand on Sri Lankan military action against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the island nation. These were the views expressed by a team of Sri Lankan journalists of Tamilian origin at a meeting hosted by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) here on Monday.

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 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - With Sri Lanka's war against Tamil Tigers coming to an end, India's new External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Saturday urged Colombo to address the root cause of the conflict" by effective devolution of powers to all communities in the island nation.

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 BRUSSELS - The European Union (EU) Monday called on the Sri Lankan government to outline a clear strategy leading to an inclusive political solution in the island nation. 'The long-term security, post-conflict reconstruction and prosperity in Sri Lanka can only be achieved through such a process, to address the legitimate concerns of all Sri Lankan communities,' the EU foreign ministers said in a statement.

May 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday called up Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and assured him of providing relief to those affected by the tragic conflict between the Lankan Army and the Tamil Tigers. "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," MEA official spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said in a statement.

May 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US and Britain have urged the Sri Lankan government as well as the Tamil Tiger rebels to take urgent steps to avoid civilian casualties in the ongoing conflict. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband Tuesday expressed 'alarm at the large number of reported civilian causalities over the past several days' in northern Sri Lanka.

April 30th, 2009 LONDON - The international community has rejected calls for suspending Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth although the current conflict in that country is taking place 'in the shadows of war crimes,' a British minister said. Foreign Office Minister Gillian Merron said there was the danger of war crimes being committed because of the Sri Lankan government's decision to keep out international agencies from the area of conflict.

April 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday welcomed Sri Lanka's decision to call a ceasefire against the rebel Liberation of Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and said the diplomatic efforts made by India paid off and combat operations came to an end.

April 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress party Tuesday urged the Sri Lankan government to ensure 'cessation of hostility' in the island nation and allow Tamil civilians to move out of the conflict zone. 'The Congress is deeply concerned about the fate of innocent Sri Lankan Tamils.

March 2nd, 2009 KOLKATA - India Sunday asserted that a permanent solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka lay in proper devolution of power, and not through military success. Speaking at a seminar here, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee appealed to Colombo to use the ceasefire offer by the Tamil Tigers to allow organisations like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to evacuate innocent civilians trapped in the war zone.

February 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Successive governments in Colombo have spiked the provisions of the 1987 India-Sri Lanka accord aimed at devolving powers to provinces in the island nation, former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga has said. Had the devolution of powers taken place earlier, Sri Lanka's dragging ethnic conflict might have ended a long time ago, Kumaratunga told a panel discussion here Tuesday evening.

February 12th, 2009 TORONTO - The powerful Canadian Tamil Congress (CTC) has again called upon Canada to put pressure on Sri Lanka to stop 'genocide' against the civilians in the conflict zone. 'For far too long, the Sri Lankan government has operated with impunity, violating international human rights law and international humanitarian law, resulting in untold loss of lives, separation of families and psychological and mental suffering for the Tamil population,' CTC spokesman David Poopalapillai said Thursday.

January 20th, 2009 CHENNAI - India is for a peaceful resolution of the raging conflict in Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu Governor Surjit Singh Barnala said here Wednesday. 'The government of India has always maintained that war is not a solution to the problem of Sri Lankan Tamils,' Barnala said in an address marking the start of the winter session of the state assembly.