Ready for Lanka mission, India treads cautiously

Significantly, the special Norwegian envoy, Eric Solheim, who has held talks with the Sri Lankan leaders in Colombo and is also speaking to the LTTE, is arriving here tomorrow and will hold talks with Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh.

Mishra said there had been no formal request from Colombo for any humanitarian assistance, including evacuation. He ruled out any Indian military intervention. “India is not going to intervene in the conflict. What we are talking about is humanitarian assistance,” he said.

The two sessions of the CCS were chaired by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who cancelled his visit to Bhopal earlier in the day for the meetings. They were attended by Defence Minister George Fernandes, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission K C Pant, Brajesh Mishra, Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar, Mansingh and chiefs of the three armed forces. The Joint Secretary in the BSM (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives) division of the MEA, Leela Ponnapa, also attended the meeting as a special invitee and briefed the CCS on the situation in Sri Lanka.

“The ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka is under constant review by the Government,” said Mishra. Sources in the Government say New Delhi is monitoring the situation very closely and is aware that any evacuation operation would not be without casualties. Though India is ready for such an operation, the sources said, it wouldn’t like to receive bodybags. The Government is hopeful of a ceasefire between Colombo and LTTE.

Sources say that with the situation in Sri Lanka worsening, the pressure may mount on New Delhi from countries like the US who have been reminding India that it cannot just let a conflict rage in its backyard.

With contingency plans in order, the Navy is ready to evacuate the trapped Sri Lankan soldiers from Jaffna “as long as the operation is peaceful” and both the parties involved agree on India’s humanitarian intervention.

“We are only waiting for a nod from the Government but there need to be ground rules before we move in,” sources said. “Evacuation of 25,000-30,000 soldiers will take time and the operation has to be peaceful. We have had our ships in place for some time now. We will evacuate the soldiers and take them to another port (most probably Trincomalee),” an official added.

As far as the Navy perceives, the evacuation will be with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and after the LTTE agrees to give safe passage to the Lankan soldiers.

The Navy will also not ferry the Lankan army’s weapons and ammunition in their ships, according to sources. “The LTTE will not permit it and this could be seen as an act of hostility,” sources said.

The Navy says it will work in tandem with the Air Force. “Evacuation will be much faster when the IAF chips in. But even for that both a port and an airfield need to be made available. Actually things would depend on the Norwegian peace initiative,” an official said.

Another problem is that not all naval ships can enter the shallow ports. The Sri Lankan navy, of course, is far too small to take on the task of evacuation and has only patrol boats which cannot evacuate around 25,000 soldiers.