Sri Lankan MPs to visit India

New Delhi: The United Progressive Alliance Government, which is facing the heat from its Tamil Nadu allies over the military offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has got some support from the Sri Lankan government.

Sources in Colombo have told CNN-IBN, the Sri Lankan government will send a high-level delegation to India on Sunday. The team, comprising Sri Lankan Tamil Members of Parliament as well, will be led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa's brother Basil Rajapaksa and it will brief the government about the offensive against LTTE.

The move comes after Indian repeatedly asked Colombo to ensure safety of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka and expedite a political solution to the ethnic conflict.

India hasn't called for a ceasefire as demanded by Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) chief and Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi, aware that the Sri Lankan army which is on the verge of reclaiming LTTE stronghold Killinochi will not oblige.

The Sri Lankan Army maintains it has killed many LTTE cadres, and kept civilian losses to a minimum.

Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa also strongly hit out at political parties in India for what he said was support for the LTTE.

"They are not aware of the ground realities. For the first time in the world the Sri Lankan army has adopted the concept of zero civilian casualties. We are very concerned about civilian casualties. Minimise casualties are the orders. We take time; we don’t use indiscriminate fire or aerial attacks. The LTTE is using pictures which they have created. The UN has confirmed that the aerial attacks we did were very precise," Gotabhaya said.

Meanwhile, the DMK has hit back at Gotabhaya's claims with party spokesperson TKS Elangovan reiterating that the Rajapaksa governemnt is carrying out genocide.

"Let them say that they haven’t killed any civilian. Let them say that they haven’t killed any children. Then it becomes unfair on our part to criticise them, but it is not like that. When innocent people and children are killed by heavy bombing it is quite natural for everybody to feel bad about it and we will definitely condemn it," Elangovan said.

And India's Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon also called the situation in Sri Lanka a humanitarian crisis and added that a political settlement is the only solution.

"We see it has a humanitarian crises which effects civilian population and it really needs to be addressed but there is a larger issue of settling the conflicts which requires a political settlement and it cannot be settled militarily," Menon said.

"Within the frame work of united Sri Lanka there has to be some political arrangements which all the communities feel comfortable with and that is what India is working on," he said.

Menon also clarified that the dates of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s Sri Lanka tour have not been finalised.

"No dates have been finalised. Sri Lankan dignitaries would be coming here and discussing the situation and then we will decide," added.

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