Lanka ready to take action if Nedumaran tries political stunt

COLOMBO: In an indirect warning to P. Nedumaran, a Tamil Nadu politician who is threatening to cross the Palk Straits illegally to demonstrate his solidarity with the Tigers, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, Government Spokesman for Defence and National Security told the Asian Tribune: "The Law of the country will deal with those trying to enter into the territorial waters of Sri Lanka."

Emphasising that this is a serious affront to national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka, he said: "The Sri Lanka Navy would be kept on alert to apprehend anyone entering into our waters."

According to news reports, P. Nedumaran continues with his threat to cross the Palk Straits and enter Jaffna to distribute parippu (lentils) and other food and medicinal items to the people in the peninsula. His declared plans are to get across the Palk Straits illegally by boat on September 12 to distribute food and medicinal items to the so called suffering Tamil brethren.

The Tigers have been plotting with Nedumaran, who is one of their hired agents in Tamil Nadu to promote Tiger politics, to smuggle him as an act of defiance, challenging both India and Sri Lanka. This act is seen as a publicity stunt engineered by the Tamil Tigers and Nedumaran not to bring relief to the people of Jaffna, but to show off that the Tamil Tigers can manipulate Tamil Nadu politicians to manipulate Indian politics.

In any case, Nedumaran will be exposing himself to serious threats to his life when he attempts to cross the Palk Straits up and down. Nor will he be able to distribute food in Jaffna, as threatened by him, without risking severe reaction from the Sri Lankan Forces.

When Asian Tribune contacted P.M. Amza, Sri Lanka's Deputy High Commissioner in Chennai, for an update he said that there is no need for any food and other items from anyone as Government maintains a continuous supply of food to Jaffna district.

He said there are 188,266 families with a total population of 653,735 people in the Jaffna district. The total requirement of food items per month for these people is 11,000 metric tons which includes rice, wheat flour, sugar, dhal and other essential and non-essential food items.

When the A-9 road was closed on August 11, 2006, there were enough food stocks available in the four Government Stores, three of them located in Navatkuly and another one in Kondavil. Therefore, since September 2006 the total food requirement up to the end of September 2007 is 132,000 MT.

Sri Lanka Government has so far shipped 97,851.78 MT of food items to Jaffna. Private shipping vessels have supplied 36,386 MT of food. Furthermore, the Government has sent by air cargo 206 MT of food items to Jaffna.

On top of it, two shipments of essential food items were dispatched by ship from Chennai direct to Jaffna on January 4 dispatched 2,675 MT of food items and on the second time on May 2, 2,950 MT of food items.

Deputy High Commissioner said along with the CWC the Commercial section of the Deputy High Commission is preparing for the third shipment of food items to be sent directly from Chennai to Jaffna by ship.

(Asian Tribune)