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That the government was running out of options on the Indian front became more evident with it having to concede distribution of food aid to Tamil civilians via the ICRC, which also saw some embarrassing moments at Thursday's press conference after the Indian High Commissioner Alok Prasad, Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona, Essential Services Commissioner S.B. Divaratne and ICRC Chief Paul Castella said cheese to the cameras.

Fireworks

The fireworks of course came at the time of the press conference with Divaratne attempting a bit of Goebbels by stating as a sovereign nation, the government cannot be bypassed in the distribution of aid, a statement Castella took issue with.

Mind, you, this issue had already come up in India with the External Affairs Ministry informing Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi that the food aid would be sent directly to the Indian High Commission in Colombo and the distribution done through the ICRC and the UN agencies.

It is with the stage thus set that Divaratne attempted his little number at the press conference to save the government from an embarrassing situation albeit making a bad case worse.

Overlook

Said Divaratne - 'Any food, relief material that goes to these two districts, the government agents are the agents of the government. So it will be definitely, it will go to the displaced people through the GAs. They are part and parcel of the whole distribution. ICRC can't go directly distribute to the families without the involvement of the GAs. That is the government's stand and that is how we have agreed upon. Because the delivery mechanism. They are living in those areas. You can't overlook the GAs. It will be distributed with the support of the GAs.'

Not accepting this position, the ICRC Chief Castella retorted:

'Let me correct these points. We are used to work in Sri Lanka, thanks to the cooperation of the authorities. But it is us who are distributing and that's why we have teams even in the north to identify needs that exist. It is in collaboration with the GAs. But it is us who select who gets what. Because we are responsible for the distribution as well. So this is a close collaboration but the operation is carried out from the beginning to the end by the ICRC.'

One point

Not to be outdone, Divaratne fired back thus: 'We have to be very clear of one point. This is Sri Lanka and Kilinochchi and Mulaithivu is not out of Sri Lanka. No foreign organisation can directly go and give any food to anybody living in those two areas. How can you bypass the government mechanism?'

Castella was to respond with equally tough words and said thus:

'This supply, this humanitarian supply will be distributed by the ICRC in the Wanni based on the needs we have identified by ourselves. Now of course we share this information with the government agents, with authorities because we want to be transparent in the work we do here. But we think it is very important that humanitarian aid is guided by needs assessments and not by political principals. That's why we want to ensure that the correct people get the correct things.'

On that note, all pretensions of the food aid being distributed by the government was laid to rest with the ground reality best captured in a telephone conversation DUA Provincial Council Member A.J.M. Muzammil had with Indian High Commissioner Alok Prasad.

Speaking to the High Commissioner who was at a dinner, Muzammil said, 'Congratulations, you have done better than Dixit,' a comment that saw the jovial Prasad chuckling.

Muzammil was of course saying that during Dixit's time, India had to forcibly airdrop parippu whereas under Prasad, New Delhi managed to do it in style by delivering the food aid directly to Colombo's Mission bypassing the government.

That just about summed up the plight of the Rajapakse government, with the only hope now being to militarily defeat the LTTE before the next election.

But that, going by the pitched battles in the Wanni appears to be a long shot, nay, a very long shot

'LTTE a true friend of India': Tamil rebel political head

21 Nov, 2008, 1554 hrs IST, PTI


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COLOMBO: Asking India to withdraw all its military assistance to Sri Lankan forces against Tamil rebels, the LTTE has said the outfit was a 'true' fr
iend of New Delhi which must revoke the ban on it.

'It (India) must stop all military assistance given to Sri Lanka, remove the ban on our movement and recognise our struggle. I like to point out that our movement and our people are true friends of India,' LTTE political head B Nadesan said in an e-mailed interview to an India based magazine from an undisclosed location.

Asserting that the LTTE Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was in 'excellent' health, he said the outfit was in favour of a ceasefire and peace talks but claimed that Sri Lankan government is keen on a military solution.

'The (Sri Lankan) government and military chiefs insist on a military solution while we have been saying that a solution can be reached only through ceasefire and peace talks,' Nadesan said.

'If the Sri Lankan government continues to believe that an ethnic issue in a country can be solved by a military solution alone, it will only lead to the oppressed ethnic people achieving their aspirations with help from other countries,' he said.

On the health condition of Prabhakaran, Nadesan asserted that he was in pink of health and was leading the current war against the Sri Lankan forces.

'Our leader is in excellent health and is leading the current war. The comments (that he will not live long) is an expression of the hatred for the Tamil people and our movement,' he said in the interview.

A strong intel network with the help of white vans

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