Thaindian News

By Manish Chand
On Board Special Aircraft, July 23 (IANS) External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Thursday said Sri Lanka has assured India that it will start the process of building houses for over 300,000 Tamil civilians living in temporary camps after the ongoing demining operations in the island nation are completed.

“Demining operations are taking place. Once the demining is done, the building process will start,” Krishna told journalists while returning from the Thai resort Phuket.

He was responding to a question on his bilateral talks with Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on the sidelines of India-ASEAN ministerial meeting in Phuket Wednesday.

“We have come to an agreement that 300,000 unsettled Sri Lankan citizens of Tamil origin will be resettled. The process of resettling will be completed in 180 days,” Krishna said, while citing Colombo’s reassurance about sticking to a six-month deadline for resettling Tamils displaced by the military conflict.

Tamil civilians are living in over 30 temporary camps since the end of the conflict between the military and the Tamil Tigers in May. The area where camps are located is littered with landmines.

India plans to send 500 soldiers to Sri Lanka - its largest contingent since the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in 1987 - to help de-mine north and north-east Sri Lanka.

“Devolution is part of the constitution and implementation is part of the process. We have made significant progress,” Bogollagama had told Indian journalists after the talks.

Bogollagama briefed Krishna about steps taken by the Sri Lankan government to resettle and rehabilitate the Tamils and the process of building political consensus over devolution of powers, informed sources said after the talks.