Sensing the new role and the whole new set of powers she enjoys with her position, the Sri Lankan counterparts will most definitely want to be in Jaya’s good books.
May 18, 2011
New Delhi, May 18: Amma-raj is back in Tamil Nadu and Jayalalithaa will reign Tamil Nadu as the new Chief Minister for the third time. With congratulations pouring in from all quarters, it seems the good wishes are coming in from the detractors as well.
The brand new CM of Tamil Nadu received a congratulatory letter from Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Prof G L Peiris. Sensing the new role and the whole new set of powers she enjoys with her position, the Sri Lankan counterparts will most definitely want to be in Jaya’s good books. It was only recently that Jaya had requested the Centre to charge Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his aides for war crimes against Sri Lankan Tamils. She had asked for the Lankan leader to stand trial before the International Court of Justice.
She had evoked sentiments of large number of voters during her fiery election campaign across, highlighting the atrocities against Tamil fisherman who had crossed the Sri Lankan waters and were shot down by forces there.
The congratulatory letter was apparently short and crisp and indicated Colombo’s keenness to work with her so as to pave way for the welfare of both countries. After the bloody civil war that led to the killing of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in May 2009, Colombo realized the need for renewed peace efforts with Tamil Nadu due to the large number of Sri Lankan Tamil empathizers there. In spite of the killing of the fishermen, the Lankan’s wanted to continue with the peace process.
Towards this effort, Peiris had travelled to India on a bilateral visit where he met PM Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and later engaging in bilateral talks with External Affairs Minister S M Krishna. The discussions were centered on the brutal killing of the fishermen and the resettlement and rehabilitation of Sri Lankan Tamils. The number of SL Tamils in these camps are believed to have come down from 2.97 lakh to 10,000.