Krishna meets Bogollagama, discusses resettlement issue

Ajay Kaul

Phuket (Thailand), Jul 22 (PTI) Amid India's desire to
see early rehabilitaion of nearly three lakh Tamil civilians
displaced due to the war, External Affairs Minister S M
Krishna Wednesday met his Sri Lankan counterpart Rohitha
Bogollagama and is understood to have discussed the issue.

Krishna and Bogollagama met in this resort island on
the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Summit and are
believed to have discussed the post-war situation.

Ahead of the meeting, Krishna told reporters that
India wants Sri Lanka to accord top priority to the
resettlement of nearly 3 lakh Tamil civilians displaced due to
the civil war there and expressed readiness to help Colombo in
this regard.

"We are in close touch with the Sri Lankan Government.
They have said that they will resettle most of the displaced
civilians in 180 days. We hope Sri Lanka will be able to do
that," Krishna said.

He said India was ready assist Sri Lanka in resettling
the Tamil civilians displaced due to the 30-year-old civil
war.
"They have promised us that they will resettle the
displaced civilians soon," he said.

The External Affairs Minister said India and Sri Lanka
were in close touch with each other and recalled the visit of
National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary
Shivshankar Menon to Colombo in May.

"We have been in close touch with each other. There
have been many visits by senior officials on both sides," he
said.

Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and
President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Senior Adviser Basil Rajapaksa
were in New Delhi last month to discuss with Indian officials
on the post-war situation.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also had a brief
interaction with President Rajapaksa on the sidelines of the
NAM Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt last week. PTI