September 6, 2006 (New Delhi)
A three member delegation of Tamil members of the Sri Lankan Parliament are in Chennai, en route to Delhi. They hope to meet India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and National Security Advisor M K Narayanan before the weekend.
The delegation is led by 73 year old R Sampanthan, MP from Trincomalee and includes M K Shivajilingam and M Senathirajah.
( Photo :Sampanthan, Shivajilingan and Senathirajah)
Although the prime minister's Office has not granted the MPs an appointment yet, they expect t0 meet Singh in Delhi on either Thursday or Friday.
All three MPs are part of the Tamil National Alliance, a amalgamation of Tamil political parties, seen as sympathetic to the Tamil tiger rebels also known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, LTTE.
The visit of the Tamil MPs from Sri Lanka comes after V Gopalaswamy, ( or Vaiko, leader of a party allied to the ruling United Progressive Alliance) a supporter of the LTTE met Singh and urged him to take urgent steps to ensure military action in Sri Lanka is not targeted at Tamil civilians. Vaiko had urged Singh to meet a delegation of Tamil MPs from Sri Lanka to get a first hand account of the "suffering" of the Tamil civilians.
Vaiko has been asking the Federal government to stop all military assistance to Sri Lanka and urge the Sri Lankan government to do more to protect the rights and lives of Tamil civilians. He has met Singh more than twice since fresh hostilities broke out between the Sri Lankan government and the rebels.
If Singh and Narayanan were to meet the MPs, it would be the first ever high level contact between the Indian government and groups considered to be close to the LTTE in 15 years.
The LTTE was banned by India soon after the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, some 15 years ago.
India's Supreme Court has ruled that members of the LTTE conspired to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi. Its Chief V Prabhakaran is an accused in the case and is a wanted man in India.
Gandhi's wife Sonia is the head of the ruling United Progressive Alliance in India.
The visit comes at a time when the LTTE faces its worst military defeat since a ceasefire was signed with the government in 2002.
It has lost a strategic enclave in Trincomalee district to the Sri Lankan Army this week. Its offensive strikes in Jaffna, north Sri Lanka too has not seen desired results.
After being banned by Canada and the European Union recently, the LTTE stand isolated and its international funding network has been seriously dented.
India, Britain and the United States have already put the LTTE on their proscribed list
The meeting also assumes significance as Pakistan has emerged as one of the chief suppliers of arms to Sri Lanka. Relations between Sri Lanka and Pakistan have improved over the past year.
The military hardware, maintenance and training given by Pakistan have contributed in a big way in the victories the Sri Lanka army has had in the recent past against the rebels.
The rebels have been accusing Pakistan of funding and aiding muslim militant groups in the east. Something the Indian external intelligence agencies have noted with caution.
The recent assassination attempt on the Pakistani high commissioner in Colombo has been blamed on the LTTE by the Sri Lankan Government. Interestingly, the high commissioner alleged India's external intelligence agency RAW ( Research and Analysis Wing) had a role in the attempt on his life.
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