Sri Lanka values Indian help in battle against LTTE

The Sri Lankan government said Tuesday that India's help was crucial in the island's battle against Tamil Tiger rebels.

"We appreciate the assistance of the Indian government in our battle to defeat terrorism," Keheliya Rambukwella, the government's defence spokesman and the minister of foreign employment, told reporters.

He said the Sri Lankan government was aware of the India's domestic political compulsions of trying to look after the interests of the Tamil community.

Rambukwella's remarks came after a visit by the Sri Lankan Army chief Sarath Fonseka to India, which has been urging Sri Lanka to end the island's conflicts with a political solution.

India had sent its peacekeeping force to the island in 1987 as part of the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord.

But since the mid-1990s the Indian government has adopted a hands-off policy in Sri Lanka's conflict.

Source: newkerala.com