India’s assistance is a goodwill gesture, says Sri Lanka

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on Tuesday refuted media speculation on a secret deal with India, and asserted that there was a clear understanding between New Delhi and Colombo on its efforts to defeat terrorism and restore democracy in the north. His remarks came even as the United Nations dispatched a convoy of 29 trucks with 438 tonnes of food to people displaced in the war zone.
In response to a question by Joseph Michael Perera (UNP) in Parliament on the recent visit of Basil Rajapaksa, MP, Senior Advisor to the President, as the Special Envoy of the President to New Delhi, Mr. Bogollagama gave details of the understanding between the two governments on various issues related to the humanitarian crisis triggered by the fighting between the forces and the LTTE in the north.
The Minister characterised “the strong bonds of friendship and trust that the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa hasforged with the political leadership of India as a manifestation of the longstanding historical ties” between the two countries.
He told the House that the successful outcome of Mr. Rajapaksa’s visit was reassuring to the people of both countries and to friends and well-wishers who desired lasting peace in Sri Lanka.
He tabled the two official communiqués issued jointly by India and Sri Lanka on October 26 in New Delhi, at the conclusion of Mr. Rajapaksa’s visit: the India-Sri Lanka Joint Press Release and the India-Sri Lanka Joint Statement on Fishing Arrangements.
Implicitly criticising interested parties who were attempting to impute an ulterior motive to the Indian government’s offer of 800 tonnes of relief materials for civilians caught up in the conflict in the North, the Minister emphasised that India had come forward with humanitarian assistance as a goodwill gesture, which reflected the friendship and spirit of good neighbourliness between the two countries.
He cautioned the general public not to be misguided by the mischievous construction given to the noble gesture of goodwill by India and recalled the financial grants that Sri Lanka had given to Myanmar and Nepal in recent times, when the two countries had experienced natural disasters. “Similarly, Sri Lanka had also made a cash donation of US$50,000 as humanitarian relief for victims of the severe floods which inundated large parts of the Indian State of Bihar in September this year,” he said.
“We are open to receiving humanitarian assistance and relief from any other friendly country, which wishes to contribute towards the government’s efforts to keep an uninterrupted supply of goods and essential services to the civilians in the conflict-affected areas of the Wanni,” the Minister said.
Mr. Bogollagama maintained that for any political solution to be feasible, disarmament of the LTTE was an essential pre-requisite. “As long as the LTTE remains armed and possessing the capacity to kill innocent civilians and destabilise public order, whatever political solution that may be proposed will simply not be viable.”
Separately, the U.N. office in Sri Lanka in a statement here said it had dispatched another major food convoy into the Wanni region of northern Sri Lanka. The 29-truck World Food Programme convoy carrying 438 tonnes of food is part of a continuing humanitarian aid effort to reach the estimated 2,30,000 civilians displaced behind the lines of confrontation in the districts of Kilinochchi and Mullathivu.
This is the fourth U.N. convoy since the U.N. was forced to temporarily withdraw from the Wanni in mid-September because of fighting. The convoy will deliver food to three locations before returning to government-controlled territory on Wednesday. The U.N. said it had delivered 2,300 tonnes of food to the Wanni since the beginning of October.