A day after India announced the second installment of humanitarian assistance for the war-affected Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka, the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon Saturday (17^th January) held talks with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

 

The humanitarian assistance amounting to 40 million (Sri Lankan) rupees for the war-affected Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka's north was earlier announced by India. According to official sources the meeting took place in the morning in the central hill district of Kandy. In this meeting Rajapaksa and Menon discussed several issues related to bilateral interest and also exchanged views on the current developments in the war-affected north, where troops are fighting the LTTE.

 

On Friday (16^th January) Menon handed over a token consignment of medicines to Basil Rajapaksa, senior presidential advisor, as part of the humanitarian assistance by India. Approximately 1,700 tonnes comprising 80,000 ready-to-use family packs containing food, clothing and personal hygiene items arrived in Sri Lanka within three weeks as the first consignment. All this items have been distributed among the needy with the help of the ICRC and the Sri Lankan government.

 

Menon also met other Sri Lankan leaders in Colombo on Friday (16^th January) such as Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and leader of the opposition party United National Party, Ranil Wickremesinghe. He also met key leaders of Muslim and Tamil parties including the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA).