Narayanan, Menon to go to Sri Lanka today

Unhappy over continued killings in Sri Lanka and worried about its fallout in Tamil Nadu, the government today decided to rush National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon to Colombo tomorrow to press for immediate end to “all hostilities”.

The announcement to send Narayanan and Menon was made by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee after a meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, second in as many days, to review the situation in Sri Lanka’s north where thousands of civilians are trapped in the conflict between the advancing army and LTTE.

The meeting was also attended by Mukherjee, Defence Minister A K Antony, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Narayanan and Menon.

“The Government of India has been monitoring with deep concern and anxiety the evolving situation in Sri Lanka, in particular the condition of Tamil civilians in conflict zones,” Mukherjee said.

“We are very unhappy at the continued killings in Sri Lanka. All killings must stop. There must be an immediate cessation of all hostilities,” he said. Narayanan and Menon, who are expected to meet President Mahinda Rajapaksa, will convey India’s concerns to the Sri Lankan government.

India has also started reaching out to important countries of the world over Sri Lanka issue, with Mukherjee talking to his UK counterpart David Miliband and planning to talk to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The developments in Sri Lanka have kicked off an uproar in Tamil Nadu, with its parties, including UPA ally DMK, demanding immediate Indian intervention to stop the war. DMK also organised a statewide shutdown on the issue today.

Mukherjee said over one lakh civilians are believed to have emerged from the ‘No Fire Zone’ into areas under government control in the past three days “but the lives of several thousands of innocent civilians remain threatened.”

Ahead of the meeting, the External Affairs Minister underlined that there can be no military solution to the ethnic problem, and started reaching out to the US, Britain and other important countries over the situation in Sri Lanka.

“We are requesting Sri Lankan authorities to have a pause or cessation of hostilities till the last civilian comes out of the conflict zone,” he told reporters. “Repeatedly we have told Sri Lankan authorities that military solution is no solution. Ultimately it will have to be a political solution,” he said.