NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Lanka rules out military role for India

Josy Joseph in New Delhi

Sri Lanka has ruled out immediate military intervention by India in the trouble-torn island nation.

Asked about possible Indian intervention in the fighting between the Lankan armed forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar said, "In the sense of troops on the ground, I think, no." He was speaking to the BBC.

A statement issued by BBC quoted Kadirgamar as saying his country would think of inviting India to facilitate a truce between his government and the LTTE only when India confirms officially its readiness to play that role.

"When you talk about India's role, I understand from the newspapers, but there's no official intimation of this fact at all up to now, that India has agreed to play a role, an honest broker's role, as my good friend the Indian foreign minister described it, if the two parties, Sri Lanka and the LTTE, wish it to be so. The moment we do have some official intimation, we will give it very serious consideration."

Asked if Sri Lanka has contacted India for help, he said, "Depends on how you define help... military help no... If you mean intervention on the ground... no. We have discussions with India going on for a long time, nothing to do with this particular battle, with respect to the supply of arms of various kinds. It's a very long and old process, there's nothing special about this."

Kadirgamar said humanitarian assistance from India could not be ruled out. "Humanitarian aid is possible because the humanitarian situation is one [where] you can't predict exactly how the situation is going to develop. It might be civilians, it might be food, it might be a variety of things. And if that situation arises, I have little doubt that India would seriously consider extending humanitarian aid."

The minister said his government would fight to hold Jaffna. "Generally speaking, I would say the whole battle situation is not very satisfactory. It has not been satisfactory for some time... We are very concerned, we've said so. We do consider the fall of Elephant Pass and some of the other bases as a very major setback. We also say, that is by no means the end of the story... there is more fighting ahead."

"The main point," he said, "I think is this, that there are ups and downs and we are certainly going to fight back.

"An overall peace in our view is intimately tied up with the question of a political settlement of the whole question... We have always maintained that notwithstanding the fighting, we are ever ready to engage in talks with the Tigers with a view to bringing about an overall, negotiated, political solution. That still stands."

Asked why the government turned down the LTTE's ceasefire offer, he said Colombo is not ready to accept a ceasefire "under the conditions under which they laid it down".

On Jaffna, he said, "We do not intend to yield Jaffna. That's the categorical position of the government. And however much fighting it may take to maintain that position, that's exactly what we're going to do."

On the Norwegian efforts to negotiate between the LTTE and the government, he said, "The Norwegians made an offer not to mediate, I want to make that very clear; the Norwegian process is a facilitating process. It's not a mediation process -- we are against mediation. We made that very clear and the Norwegians accept that. I believe the LTTE also accepts that. There's a big difference between the two. That process is still on track. It's a little bit on hold, I would say."

But, Kadirgamar said, there has been no contact between his government and the LTTE of late, "because the fighting is very intense".

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report