COLOMBO: March 15, (Reuter): Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has sent a special envoy to Colombo with a message for President Junius Jayewardene amid worsening relations between the two countries.
The envoy, Dinesh Singh, a member of the Indian Parliament and a former government minister who arrived in Colombo unannounced yesterday, handed the message to Jayewardene last night, officials said.
The contents of the message were not disclosed. Diplomatic sources said they believed they centered on the conflict between the island’s majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils.
The dispute has killed more than 5,000 people in the past four years.
Sri Lankan newspapers have been criticizing India in the past two years for what they described as an Indian inspired draft resolution introduced by Argentina at a U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva.
The resolution, which sought to condemn the island’s human rights record, was passed last Thursday, after delegates deleted references to the alleged torture and disappearance of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka.
Jayewardene in a speech told India and Argentina to settle their own human rights problems before trying to tell Sri Lanka what to do.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 20, 1987
