Preparations on for India, Pak. talks

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, AUG. 7. Preparations are under way here for the bilateral meeting between the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan on the sidelines of the SAARC standing committee meeting here on August 9 and 10.

The Foreign Secretary, Ms. Chokila Iyer, is expected to arrive here on Wednesday evening. Officials said the date and time of the meeting between Ms. Iyer and her Pakistani counterpart, Mr. Inamul Haq, the first official high-level exchange between the two countries after the Agra summit, were being worked out.

The meeting will take place in the backdrop of the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee's statement in the Lok Sabha today that India would find ways to improve relations with Pakistan despite the failure of the summit, but not on Islamabad's terms.

The External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said in New Delhi on Monday that the Foreign Secretaries would discuss all issues relating to bilateral relations at their meeting in the Sri Lankan capital.

Meanwhile, SAARC officials from member countries today began preparatory sessions for the standing committee meeting. The committee, which is the SAARC charter body of the Foreign Secretaries of member countries, is expected to discuss dates for the long-postponed Kathmandu summit, officials said.

The summit was to be held in November 1999, but was put off after India vetoed it on the ground that it could not share a platform with Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who had then newly captured power in Pakistan.

Despite the failure of the Agra summit to make any dramatic breakthrough in the relations between the two countries, the atmosphere is believed to have thawed enough for there no longer seems to be any objections from any quarter to holding the summit.

SAARC officials said it was now a question of finalising the dates for the summit. The Foreign Secretary of Nepal is expected to propose the dates at the standing committee meeting.

Bombing continues

Sri Lanka's Air Force, badly hit by an attack on its main air base by the LTTE two weeks ago, carried out yet another bombing mission in the northeast today.

A Defence Ministry release said Kfir bombers destroyed an LTTE base in the Thoppigala jungles in the eastern district of Batticaloa today. The Israeli-made bombers engaged LTTE bunker lines in Pallai in the northern Jaffna peninsula on Monday. ``Pilots confirm that the mission was very successful,'' the release added.

The Air Force appears to be making the point that its operational capability remains unaffected despite the devastating attack on the Katunayake air base on July 24.

Suicide cadres of the LTTE attacked the air base and the adjoining civilian international airport on July 24, destroying eight military aircraft, including two Kfirs. Several other military aircraft, including bombers, are said to have been damaged by machine gun fire during the attack.

The Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation today said that a team from Israel had arrived to assess the possibilities of carrying out repairs on the damaged aircraft.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Airlines has written off one of the three Airbus aircraft damaged in the attack after assessment teams pronounced it beyond repair. Three other Airbus planes were completely destroyed during the attack.

Reports from Jaffna said a massive manhunt had been launched for four prisoners who escaped from the district jail on Monday night. The jail houses around 100 prisoners, many of them picked up by security forces on suspicion of being LTTE cadres.

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