Indo-Lanka ties in 2013 affected by Tamil issue
31 Dec 2013 5:08 AM IST
<span style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">India-Sri Lanka ties in 2013 were affected by differences over alleged rights abuses in the war against the LTTE and giving political rights to Tamils, even as Colombo held provincial polls after 25 years in the Tamil-dominated north as part of reconciliation.
Hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November brought Sri Lanka back in international spotlight with some leaders boycotting the summit over the country’s human rights record.
Prime minister Manmohan Singh skipped the summit due to stiff opposition from political parties in Tamil Nadu, demanding a ‘total boycott’ over the Tamil issue and their political rights, four years after the Sri Lankan troops crushed <span style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">Tamil rebels fighting for a separate homeland.
However, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid attended the summit and said India was committed to <span style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">the welfare of Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamils and would remain engaged with the country in the ‘enlightened national interest’.
UK prime minister David Cameron’s historic visit to war-ravaged Jaffna, the first by a foreign head of government since Sri Lanka’s independence from Britain in 1948, took the spotlight away from the summit of <span style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">the 53-member grouping.
He gave an ultimatum to Sri Lanka to conduct <span style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">a credible inquiry into the war crimes by March, failing which he would seek <span style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">an international investigation.
A defiant President Mahinda Rajapaksa, however, rebuffed Cameron and said Lanka must be trusted to conduct its own probe.
Hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November brought Sri Lanka back in international spotlight with some leaders boycotting the summit over the country’s human rights record.
Prime minister Manmohan Singh skipped the summit due to stiff opposition from political parties in Tamil Nadu, demanding a ‘total boycott’ over the Tamil issue and their political rights, four years after the Sri Lankan troops crushed <span style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">Tamil rebels fighting for a separate homeland.
However, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid attended the summit and said India was committed to <span style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">the welfare of Sri Lanka’s ethnic Tamils and would remain engaged with the country in the ‘enlightened national interest’.
UK prime minister David Cameron’s historic visit to war-ravaged Jaffna, the first by a foreign head of government since Sri Lanka’s independence from Britain in 1948, took the spotlight away from the summit of <span style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">the 53-member grouping.
He gave an ultimatum to Sri Lanka to conduct <span style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">a credible inquiry into the war crimes by March, failing which he would seek <span style="border-bottom: 1px solid #0000FF !important;text-decoration:underline !important;color:#0000FF !important">an international investigation.
A defiant President Mahinda Rajapaksa, however, rebuffed Cameron and said Lanka must be trusted to conduct its own probe.
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