Nirupama Rao on visit to war-ravaged Sri Lanka
Nirupama Rao on visit to war-ravaged Sri Lanka
Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao commenced her visit to the war ravaged Northern Sri Lanka today with a visit to Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and Jaffna for a first hand assessment of the Indian assistance and the situation of the re-settled Tamil civilians.
At the camp in Menik Farm in Vavuniya where she met a number of the Internally Displaced Persons awaiting re-settlement she assured them of the Government of India’s continued commitment to assist them in the task of rebuilding their lives.
Accompanied by the High Commissioner of India Ashok K. Kantha, Governor of the Northern Province, Maj Gen (Rtd) G.A.Chandrasiri and senior officials of the Governments of India and Sri Lanka, Ms. Rao received a briefing on the resettlement situation from Maj Gen Kamal Gunaratne, the Security Forces Commander of the Wanni.
She next visited Mahilankulam near Omanthai, a site where the Horizon (ex-servicemen)Group of India is conducting demining operations in a heavily mined area that constituted the no-man’s land between the former Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) of the Sri Lankan Army and the LTTE.
The Government of India is funding three Horizon demining teams, in addition to four teams from Sarvatra, another Indian demining group working in Sri Lanka. The work of the demining teams has come in for considerable praise. Before leaving Vavuniya, Smt Nirupama Rao also distributed another consignment of Indian assistance consisting of agricultural toolkits, roofing sheets and cement bags among recently resettled IDPs, at the Agrarian Services Centre in Omanthai.
Foreign Secretary visited Kilinochchi, where she met with local army and civil officials who briefed her on the progress of resettlement. They expressed their happiness that Government of India was readily coming forward to assist in the process of resettlement. She also met with recently resettled families in the Kilinochchi area and distributed toolkits, cement bags and roofing sheets to them.
In Jaffna, Foreign Secretary met with local officials who briefed her on the situation in the Jaffna Peninsula and the resettlement priorities of the district. Foreign Secretary was accorded a warm public reception at the Jaffna Public Library where the Minister of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development, Mr. Douglas Devananda and the Mayor of Jaffna were also present.
During her interaction in Jaffna, Foreign Secretary underlined that India stood with Sri Lanka in responding to the challenges posed by the task of resettlement and rehabilitation of the large number of IDPs resulting from the end of armed conflict in 2009.
