India to send 2,000 tonnes of relief goods to Sri Lanka

New Delhi (IANS): In what is a sharp departure from what it did in 1987, India will soon ship 2,000 tonnes of relief material to Sri Lanka for tens of thousands of people displaced by war. This time, however, the delivery will be done through the International Red Cross.

The Tamil Nadu government will put together individual family packs containing food and non-food items including clothes and hygiene products in a bid to ease hardships to civilians forced to flee their homes due to fighting between the Military and the Tigers.

New Delhi is coordinating with the Tamil Nadu authorities and help facilitate and transport the material to Colombo, where the Indian High Commission will receive it. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will then take charge and do the distribution to those in need of food and shelter.

This will be the biggest Indian humanitarian intervention in Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami.

It will also be the most significant relief effort since India undertook a controversial and unilateral sea and air borne operation to deliver food to the civilian population in Jaffna in June 1987.

Like in 1987, the present situation in Sri Lanka's north, where the military is trying to seize areas the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) holds, has led to protests in Tamil Nadu and caused concern in the Indian capital.

"Yes, we have been approached by the government of India about (providing) assistance in Sri Lanka, chiefly in Wanni," Francois Stamm, head of the ICRC Regional Delegation here, told IANS. Wanni is the name of a large area that includes the districts of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts where the LTTE is now resisting an advancing army. "To my knowledge, this is the first time India has approached ICRC for such a purpose," Stamm said. "We are very glad."