India finally urges Sri Lanka to solve Tamil crisis

Better late than never, India called on Sri Lanka to take rapid steps to ensure the resettlement of Tamils displaced by civil war and achieve a genuine reconciliation between the country's Sinhalese and Tamil populations, India's Hindu newspaper reported.

The paper said New Delhi pressed Colombo to act fast to return Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to their homes, restore normality in affected areas, and to redress the humanitarian concerns of affected families at delegation-level talks led by Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and his Sri Lankan counterpart G.L. Peiris in Delhi Monday.

However, at least publicly, New Delhi continued its studied silence on a UN panel report that found evidence of serious war crimes and called for an international probe.

Peiris said the Sri Lankan government has had six rounds of talks with Tamil representatives and has begun to address the devolution of power, the Hindu reported.

He added that the government has proposed a bi-cameral legislature to share power at the central government level, since 50 per cent of Tamils live outside the northern part of Sri Lanka. He said that the Tamil representatives have also given some proposals to the government.

On the UN panel report, Peiris said that the Sri Lankan government had not accepted its findings because it contained several contradictions, and he reiterated his government's stand that the report “puts obstacles” in the reconciliation effort among its people, the paper said.

In April, the UN called for an independent investigation into "credible" allegations that Sri Lanka's military forces killed tens of thousands of civilians in their final push to end a decades-long civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, more commonly known as the Tamil Tigers.