NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

India seriously considers evacuation of troops in Lanka

George Iype in Madras

As India zeroes in on various options to intervene in the ethnic strife in Sri Lanka, evacuation of a large number of trapped Lankan troops from Jaffna peninsula to the Indian shores is one possibility that the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government is considering seriously.

But Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has insisted that the Sri Lankan forces should not be brought to Tamil Nadu shores even for a temporary passage as it could incite political passions in the state.

Top official sources confirmed that despite the Sri Lankan government's claim that its army will remain in Jaffna till the end, the island nation is in constant touch with New Delhi to chalk out the modalities of the evacuation of its beleaguered troops from the Jaffna peninsula.

While India has virtually decided to lift its rigid restrictions on dealing with the Sri Lankan crisis, the timing of the Vajpayee government's intervention will depend on the likely breakthrough the Norwegian delegation achieves in Colombo.

Now that Prime Minister Vajpayee has achieved a near political consensus on the ticklish issues of evacuation of the trapped troops and humanitarian aid to civilians trapped in Jaffna, the three Indian services have been told to finalise the mode of operation in Sri Lanka.

Sources said one serious possibility that the Indian government is considering is to evacuate a large number of forces by air and sea to various Indian destinations in South India.

Defence officials put forward two reasons for shifting the Lankan troops for temporary stay in India. First, it is easier for the Indian Navy and Air Force to evacuate them to Indian destinations because of the proximity of Jaffna to India.

Second, given previous experience, India does not want any direct confrontation with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. "Shifting the Sri Lankan forces from Jaffna to various parts of Sri Lanka is a difficult and risky proposition. Therefore, we might follow the indirect route of evacuating them through India," a senior Indian Navy official at the Southern Command told rediff.com.

He said evacuating all the 35,000 Lankan troops, their military equipment, arms and ammunition and hundreds of stranded civilians to safer places will be a mammoth operation. "If it happens it will be the biggest such operation the Indian forces has ever undertaken. It is impossible to airlift all of them. So the most possible route is through the sea," the official added.

But since Karunanidhi has insisted that the Sri Lankan troops should not be brought to the state, it is likely that they could be taken to the Indian Navy and Air Force bases in Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Mangalore and Cochin.

Official sources said Sri Lankan Chief of Defence Staff General Rohan de Silva Daluvatte and the country's Deputy External Affairs Minister Lakshman Kiriella, who held high-level talks with Indian officials in Bangalore, have already discussed the logistics of the Indian operation in Jaffna.

Defence Minister George Fernandes, who is holding a series of meetings with top defence officials in Bangalore on Tuesday, will assess the country's military and operational preparedness and brief the Cabinet Committee on Security soon.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report