Colombo welcomes Delhi's offer

CHENNAI, MAY 24. Sri Lanka today welcomed India's conditional offer to help evacuate its troops from Jaffna, but ruled out any immediate necessity for such a measure.

``If such a situation arises and India can help, we will welcome it, but I don't know if the ground situation is such that we need to evacuate the troops immediately,'' the Sri Lankan Deputy Minister for External Affairs, Mr. Lakshman Kiriella, told some reporters here this morning.

The next four or five days would be very crucial when it would then be known whether the situation required measures such as evacuation, he said.

On why Sri Lanka was yet to make a formal request, he said one was only presuming it was necessary. ``I doubt it very much, it all depends on the ground situation,'' Mr. Kiriella, who has been in Chennai and Bangalore since May 20 on a private visit, said.

About the possibility of New Delhi insisting on a ceasefire as a pre-condition for helping evacuate troops, he said, ``we will do anything to create a peaceful environment in Jaffna.''

On why the LTTE's earlier offer of a ceasefire was rejected, he said the Government had even suggested that there could be a negotiated settlement within a timeframe and that until then the army could be confined to the barracks. ``We have been sounding them (LTTE rebels) out since 1994 for talks.''

- PTI

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