The Tamil National Alliance Leaders meeting the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, in Colombo, Sri Lanka on March 13, 2015.
The Tamil National Alliance Leaders meeting the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, in Colombo, Sri Lanka on March 13, 2015.
PM Narendra Modi to visit Sri Lanka`s Tamil heartland Jaffna today | Zee News
Jaffna:
Narendra Modi will travel to
Jaffna on Saturday, becoming the first Indian prime minister to visit Sri Lanka`s Tamil heartland, a day after urging greater autonomy for the island`s biggest minority after a decades-long ethnic war.
Modi, who is only the second foreign leader to visit the battle-scarred region, will launch construction of a cultural centre and hand over houses to 50,000 families that lost their homes in the decades of fighting.
His brief visit is seen as hugely symbolic, particularly after he called on the majority-Sinhalese government to fully implement a 1987 constitutional provision on greater autonomy.
"Sri Lanka has lived through decades of tragic violence and conflict," Modi said, referring to 37-years of ethnic war which killed at least 100,000 people, mostly Tamils.
"You have successfully defeated terrorism and brought the conflict to an end. You now stand at a moment of historic opportunity to win the hearts and heal the wounds across all sections of society."
Modi told the Sinhalese-dominated parliament in Colombo that "cooperative federalism" was working well in India and suggested it could be a model for Sri Lanka too.
A Tamil council was elected in September 2013, five years after the war ended, but it lacks legislative authority.
India has long supported greater autonomy for the minority group, but Suresh Premachandran, a Tamil lawmaker from Jaffna, said Modi`s comments were the strongest in a long time.
"He is going to be very welcome after the powerful message he sent," Premachandran told AFP.
New President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in January promising ethnic reconciliation and accountability for alleged war crimes committed by security forces under the command of former leader Mahinda Rajapakse.
Tens of thousands of troops are still garrisoned in Jaffna despite international calls for a scaling-back of numbers, although there were few soldiers in evidence there ahead of Modi`s visit.
While reconstruction has begun in some parts of Jaffna city, many neighbourhoods and surrounding villages are still strewn with rubble as a legacy of the heavy bombardments that they endured over the decades.
On his way to Jaffna Modi will stop at the north-western town of Talaimannar, the closest point to India, to flag off a train service restored after decades of war.
Indian loans have already helped restore rail services to Jaffna, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Colombo, and Modi has pledged USD 318 million to rehabilitate Sri Lanka`s dilapidated railway network.
He will be only the second world leader to visit the peninsula after British Prime Minister David Cameron, who travelled there during a Commonwealth summit in Colombo in November 2013.
Modi will also stop at a Buddhist temple in the historic north-central city of Anuradhapura that is home to a tree worshippers believe was grown from a sapling from the one that sheltered the Buddha over 2,500 years ago.
AFP
PM Narendra Modi urges security cooperation on landmark Sri Lanka trip | Zee News
New Delhi: Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi called for greater security cooperation with Sri Lanka on Friday during a landmark visit to the strategically located Indian Ocean island, whose drift towards China has raised concerns in New Delhi.
Modi told Sri Lanka`s parliament a "strong foundation of security" in the Indian Ocean was necessary for regional prosperity, as he began the first official visit to the island by an Indian premier in 28 years,
Sri Lanka is a midway point on one of the world`s busiest international shipping lanes and lies just across the water from India, but Beijing has asserted growing strategic influence in recent years as it seeks to secure its trading routes.
Modi has made clear his ambition to reassert India`s dominance in its own backyard since taking office, and his comments underscored the rivalry between the two neighbours, although he did not mention China by name.
"A future of prosperity requires a strong foundation of security for our countries and peace and stability in the region," Modi told the 225-member assembly.
"We should expand the maritime security cooperation between India, Sri Lanka and Maldives to include others in the Indian Ocean area."
Modi said he and new President Maithripala Sirisena had agreed to set up a task force to focus on an "ocean economy" that could have strategic interests for both.
India has traditionally regarded Sri Lanka as within its sphere of influence, and was furious last year when Rajapakse allowed two Chinese submarines to dock in Colombo.
Beijing also bankrolled a major expansion of the island`s infrastructure under its former president Mahinda Rajapakse.
But his successor has worked to reduce the country`s dependence on Beijing and last month ordered a suspension of China`s biggest investment project, a $1.4 billion new city on reclaimed land next to Colombo`s main sea port.
Modi pledged Indian financial aid amounting to $1.81 billion during his visit, part of a tour of Indian Ocean islands that took in Mauritius and the Seychelles.
The figure includes a $1.5 billion currency swap to help stabilise Sri Lanka`s currency.
He said India would help develop a regional petroleum hub in the north-eastern port city of Trincomalee, a strategic staging post for allied forces during WWII.Modi will become the first Indian prime minister to visit the northern Tamil stronghold of Jaffna during his two-day visit.
On Friday he urged the new government to give greater autonomy to the region, which was hit hard by the country`s 37-year civil war and remained heavily militarised after the conflict ended in 2009.
Tamils should be able to live "a life of equality, justice, peace and dignity in a united Sri Lanka," Modi said in Colombo shortly after holding talks with Sirisena.
He called for the "early and full implementation" of a 1987 constitutional provision that envisaged political autonomy for the Tamils, who are concentrated in the island`s north.
Sirisena has promised to work on reconciliation between the Tamils and the Sinhalese majority after ousting Rajapakse, who oversaw the brutal military suppression of a separatist rebellion in 2009.
Rajapakse won praise for ending the 37-year civil war that had ravaged the island and killed at least 100,000 people, mostly Tamils, but has also faced accusations of overseeing widespread rights abuses.
Sri Lanka`s Tamils share close cultural and religious ties with those across the Palk Strait in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and New Delhi was closely involved in the civil war.Modi is the first Indian prime minister to visit the island since Rajiv Gandhi in 1987, and Sirisena said after their meeting he wanted to "turn a new page in our relations".
Gandhi had gone to Colombo to sign a pact that sought to end a guerrilla war by Tamil separatist rebels who had effectively enjoyed a safe haven in India since the mid 1980s.
The main rebel group, the Tamil Tigers, repudiated the peace accord that set up the Tamil devolution plan and India ended up fighting the militants they had once trained and armed.
Around 1,140 Indian soldiers lost their lives during the 32-month deployment in Sri Lanka and Gandhi himself was assassinated in 1991 by a female Tiger suicide bomber while campaigning in Tamil Nadu.
AFP
So am waiting with a popcorn . Prove me wrong kid
