Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa assured a delegation of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Congress MPs from Tamil Nadu that over 54,000 Tamils displaced due to the civil war there will be resettled in their towns and villages within three months.
Rajapaksa also told the delegation led by DMK parliamentary party leader T R Baalu that his government was committed to implement the 13th Amendment under the 1987 Indo-Sri Lanka accord. A total of 14 MPs from DMK and Congress, including DMK chief M Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi, former Union Minister Manishankar Aiyar and E M Sudarsana Natchiappan, called on Rajapaksa here and demanded that steps be taken to integrate Tamil minorities into the mainstream.
"We requested the President to take steps to resettle the 80,000 people who are still lodged in camps in northern Sri Lanka. He said there were only 54,000 people in camps and they will resettled in three months before the monsoon season begins," Baalu told media-persons after the meeting. Rajapaksa admitted that there was some delay in resettling the displaced Tamil civilians due to presidential and parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka, Baalu quoted him as saying.
Baalu said the delegation impressed upon Rajapaksa to implement the Rajiv Gandhi-Jayawardane Accord in "letter and spirit" to which the President replied in the affirmative. He said the delegation was not "fully satisfied" with the meeting as Rajapaksa failed to give any concrete assurances. DMK spokesperson T K S Elangovan, who was also part of the delegation, told PTI that Rajapaksa told the team that his government was committed to implement the 13th Amendment and that was considering a political solution to resolve the long impending Tamil question.
"He listened to us, but did not give any concrete assurances. He told us that there were 54,000 people still living in camps and they will be resettled soon," he said. In a memorandum submitted to Rajapaksa, the delegation said they have come to know that Sri Lanka has not yet utilised the Rs 500 crore financial assistance which has been given to it by India to carry out developmental works in the war-ravaged northern Sri Lanka. "We urge the Sri Lankan Government to spend the money given by India to be used for developmental works in the north," they said in the memorandum. The MPs also demanded that Sri Lanka implement in "letter and spirit" the Indo-Sri Lanka accord and implement 13th Amendment which calls for devolution of powers in Tamil-dominated northern region.
