COLOMBO, Oct 18: The Sri Lankan government will send a high-powered delegation to New Delhi in an attempt to explain to Indian leaders Sri Lanka’s policy on war and peace, the Tamil ethnic question, and the steps being taken to look after refugees.

“The composition of the delegation and the dates of the visit are yet to be finalised,” Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona told the media on Saturday.

Political sources said that the delegation would either be led by Basil Rajapakse, senior adviser and brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, or a senior cabinet member like Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama. The name of Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake also arose, but some said the president might not want to play all his cards now.

The team is expected to include some moderate Tamil leaders like Douglas Devananda, the only cabinet minister from the troubled north and east.

“The delegation will tell New Delhi that civilian casualties have been few and far between; the government has designated No Fire Zones for civilians to take shelter; and adequate arrangements have been made to look after the refugees coming to Vavuniya,” Foreign Secretary Kohona said.

Asked if the government would give a guarantee that the refugees would not be detained, arrested on suspicion of having links with the LTTE, he retorted: “Why should we detain them? We look at them as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)!”

“We are also of the view that the number of IDPs is exaggerated. It is not 200,000, but less than 100,000, as the entire population of the districts of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu is only 250,000, as per the 2001 census,” Kohona said.

It is learnt that Sri Lankan High Commissioner in India C.R.Jayasinghe briefed President Mahinda Rajapakse here on Saturday about his meeting with Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon on Friday, in which the latter had asked Sri Lanka to address India’s concerns over the humanitarian situation created by the war in the northern part of the island nation.

Over 230,000 Tamil refugees are believed to be trapped in the two districts of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu, the last strongholds of the LTTE, as the Sri Lankan forces inch forward supported by artillery and aerial bombardment. Though the government has designated two ‘No Fire Zones’ and urged refugees to come over to the government-controlled Vavuniya, very few have responded.

On Friday, Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka Alok Prasad met Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama to express India’s concerns. Bogollagama replied that Sri Lanka understood India’s concerns, and stated that Sri Lanka would bilaterally discuss the issues at appropriate levels.

KARUNANIDHI SEPARATIST: Meanwhile, in a front page editorial on Saturday, The Island daily said that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi was promoting his own “separatist agenda” by supporting LTTE leader Prabhakaran.

Recalling that the Karunanidhi government had supported the LTTE and vilified the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) in 1988-90, the paper said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should defeat the “separatist lobby” in Tamil Nadu by asking Karunanidhi to stop using Prabhakaran as a “cat’s paw” to promote his own “separatist” agenda on the pretext of helping Sri Lankan Tamils. The Island argued that there could be no devolution of power so long as the Tigers were strong.

NEED FOR DEVOLUTION: However, political commentator K.Godage writing in Daily Mirror said that while no one could dictate to Sri Lanka, the ball was in Sri Lanlka’s court. He stressed the importance of coming out with a devolution package that “would be endorsed by India and which the minorities, particularly the Tamil people, would not be able to refuse”.

Commentator Dayan Jayatilleka said Sri Lanka should attain international sanction for its right to militarily defeat the terrorist and separatist LTTE by devolving power to the Tamils and rejecting Sinhalese chauvinism.