From correspondents in Delhi, India, 08:32 PM IST
India said Wednesday that it wanted Sri Lanka to treat Tamils with dignity and also voiced concern that Colombo's arms purchases may upset New Delhi's 'pre-eminent position' in South Asia.
'We are facing a situation where the ceasefire (in Sri Lanka) could collapse. This could lead to a flashpoint,' National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan said while delivering the 25th Air Chief Marshal P.C. Lal memorial lecture here.
'We want the Sri Lankan government to treat its large Tamil minority with dignity,' he said.
'(But) the (Sri Lankan) government would seem to have the single objective of a military victory (against the Tamil Tigers) without any devolution of power.'
Narayanan also added: 'We have to ensure that India's pre-eminent position in the region is not compromised by Sri Lanka seeking arms from elsewhere.
'We need a national consensus on how much (military) assistance we should provide and how much pressure we should put on the (Sri Lankan) government.'
Thousands of people have died in Sri Lanka in the past two years in escalating fighting between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
India opposes any military solution of the ethnic conflict and wants Colombo to devolve autonomy to the minorities.
And while India continues to train Sri Lankan military personnel, it has refused to provide what it dubs are offensive military hardware.
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India has no balls.There is no strong leadership after Indra Gandhi.Do a CUBAN blocade (Like President Kenndy)and get rid of the Paki and the Chinese nusance around you.
It is surprising to note that India is worried about Sri Lanka's arms buying. Sri Lanka is fa cing the ethnic problem for more the three decades. The problem creator LTTE is firm to kill the Sri Lankan leaders and those who air their opnion against the LTTE principles (including Tamil leaders in India). With no proper discipline from the LTTE to solve the ethnic problem and their adamancy to fight against the Lankan only to create tense in the Island nation, the Lankan government's arm buying is not danger to India; but, danger only to the LTTE, which is a banned organisation in India and India should welcome Lankan's arms buying.
If India opposes military solution why is it training the SL forces in dropping bombs and aerial flights - only to increase the killing of more tamil civilians.
What is Narayan telling - after all the training in dropping bombs and aerial attacks have been given to an army determined to exterminate the Tamils of SL
Double talk by Indians...Tamils are not buying it...maybe the Junta in Sri-Lanka and Burma enjoy this Indian double talk or whatever..better call it double fart.
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