Sri Lankan president to arrive in Delhi Tuesday
The visiting Indian minister also met his Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera.
With his forces encircling the fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tami Eelam in a tiny strip of land in the northern region of the country, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse held out an olive branch to the Tamil Tigers on Monday, asking them to lay down arms after which they will be 'readily accepted and treated humanely'. The President said all facilities would be made available for the LTTE cadres who lay down their arms and surrender.
The 2009 Lahore terror attack is yet to become even a distant memory but Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse has reportedly given his consent to the country's cricket team touring Pakistan again.
Dr Singh said the centre would reiterate to the Lankan government that there is no military solution to the problem in that country.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has said he does not want joint patrolling with India to check smuggling of arms to Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse left for Colombo from the Nedumbassery International Airport in Kochi Friday evening at the end of a four-day visit to India.
The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse made a surprise visit to the tamil dominated town of Jaffna, a week before elections are scheduled to be held in the country.
Meanwhile, the state protocol officer said there was no room for a controversy over the issue as it had been ascertained from Colombo that Rajapakse's wife is a Buddhist.
The proposed visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to Sanchi next week -- to lay the foundation of a Buddhist University -- is mired in controversy with the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam strongly opposing the visit.
A 26-year old CITU activist on Monday attempted self-immolation here protesting the proposed visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to India, police said.
Taking on senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj and the Madhya Pradesh government over a proposed visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse there later in September, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam founder Vaiko on Monday urged Bharatiya Janata Party's top brass against entertaining him and threatened a black flag demo if his demand was not heeded to.
The Obama administration has expressed its deep disappointment with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse for relegating the devolution of power in the Tamil majority areas, in the country's northern province, to the back-burner. The international community had urged the Lankan government to put the motion in process after crushing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, who perhaps became the first Head of State to speak in Tamil at the UN General Assembly, has conveyed that the government puts the language on equal status with that of Sinhala, a top minister said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday denied allegations of some pro-Tamil leaders, including Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko that party leader Sushma Swaraj had invited Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse for an official event in Madhya Pradesh on September 21.
Over 1,500 workers of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam are participating in a dharna at Chindwara, Madhya Pradesh. MDMK party workers have travelled all the way from Tamil Nadu to protest Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's visit to Sanchi.
Menon was in Colombo to discuss the ethnic strife with the President.
During Rajapakse's nationally televised address on the country's 61st independence day, he broke into Tamil, assuring the people of the community in the embattled north and other parts of the country of their well-being and equality in status.
Tamil-actor-turned political leader Vijaykanth told rediff.com that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's announcement of demanding Indian citizenship for Sri Lankan Tamil refugees is helping the dream of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse.
"India would have loved to get more involved in Sri Lanka positively -- helping us to fight terrorism. Now, remember, India suffered a lot in the sense, it lost its leader -- Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the LTTE. That is something, which India can never forgive nor forget," says Razik Zarook, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's Counsel.
Turning down a request made by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Vaiko -- to call off his party's protest against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse -- party workers on Monday left for Sanchi to demonstrate against the violation of rights of Tamils in the island nation.
Set to form the next government in Tamil Nadu, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo J Jayalalithaa on Friday said the top agenda for her government would be to restore "law and order" which had "totally deteriorated".
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse arrived in New Delhi Tuesday on a four-day visit during which he is expected to seek greater involvement of India in his country's fragile peace process.
The first batch of 2,400 Tamils lodged in camps for internally displaced persons in Sri Lanka were sent back home on Thursday as assured by the Sri Lankan government, said Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam Member of Parliament T R Baalu, who led a team of Tamil Nadu MPs to the island nation.
"The ceasefire should continue and both sides should come to the negotiating table to resolve the problem," the minister said.
Sri Lanka has offered to hold talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after a two-year gap, saying the outfit does represent a fair amount of Tamils but ruled out the immediate revival of the ceasefire scrapped in January.
"The LTTE is, perhaps, fighting its last battle and the security forces are continuing their fight to emancipate the country and the people of the north and east from terrorism," Rajapakse said after giving away gallantry awards to the armed forces personnel in Colombo on Thursday.
Bolstered by American and Pakistani support, Colombo is increasingly insensitive to Indian concerns over the plight of the Tamils.
The President is seeking an end to the spurt of violence.
After his visit to Sri Lanka, Norway's top peace envoy Erik Solheim on Saturday said the situation in the island nation was "dangerous".
They are our closest neighbour and it is very important for me to have them involved in the process, said Rajapakse.
He is widely regarded as the mastermind of increased military operations in recent months -- including ground shelling and aerial bombing -- against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The Indo-Sri Lanka joint statement issued at the conclusion of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's visit to India is "biased against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eeelam," Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Vaiko said in Chennai Sun.
Sri Lanka is seeking naval assistance from India to curb the influx of arms into the island nation.
Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, who visited Sri Lanka last week and met President Mahinda Rajapakse and senior Sri Lankan officials, has said that India had been reassured over the Lankan government's efforts to return internally-displaced persons to their homes and also hopeful over a future political process to alleviate the lot of the Tamil-speaking community and other minorities.
A man who tried to attempt self-immolation here protesting the proposed visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to India died on Tuesday, the police said.
A behind-the-scenes account of how the three-decade old conflict came to an end in the island nation.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met visiting President Mahinda Rajapakse.
