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From : Heladiwa
Added: Oct 15, 2009
Lanka to send home 58,000 refugees for now Thu, 2009-10-15 02:59 — editor From S Murari, Chennai Chennai, 15 October, ( Asiantribune.com): Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has assured a team of parliamentarians from Tamil Nadu that 58,000 out of 2.5 lakh Tamils uprooted during the final phase of the war with the separatist Tamil Tigers last May will be resettled in their homes in the next fortnight. This assurance was given to the team of MPs drawn from the DMK, the Congress and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi when they called on the President in Colombo on Tuesday. This was disclosed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to reporters here on Wednesday after he received the MPs who returned after a five-day visit to Sri Lanka. During their visit, they made an on-the-spot study of the conditions in the make-shift refugee camps in Jaffna and Vavunia. Team member and Karuanidhi's daughter Kanimothi told Asiantribune.com that Mr Rajapakse also assured them that his government was working on a solution to the ethnic conflict that "will meet not only the legitimate aspirations of members of all communities in Sri Lanka but also the concerns of our neighbor". This was the first time since the signing of the 1987 peace agreement between the then Indian Prime Minister, Mr Rajiv Gandhi, and the then Sri Lankan President J R Jayewardene, that a Sri Lankan leader has acknowledged India has a stake in ensuring peace in the island. Mr Karunanidhi( 85), who received the team at the Chennai airport, said in a statement later that the visit had raised hopes that "the Tamils' decades long struggle for equal rights, flagged by Eelam leader S J V Chelvanayakam, will become a reality". The ten-member team also interacted with leaders of the Tamil National Alliance, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogologama and United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe. This was the first visit by an MPs team from India after the outbreak of full-fledged civil war in 1983. Mr Karunanidhi, who was invited by President Rajapaksa and who deputed the team on his behalf, is expected to report to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the outcome of the visit. The members of the delegation are T,R,Balu, Kanimozhi, T K S Elangovan, A K S Vijayan, Helen Davidson, Sudaresana Nachappan, N V S Chithan, J M Haroon Rashid, K S Azhagiri and Thol Thirumavalavan. -Asian Tribune -
Category : News

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