Indian external affairs minister ignores major Tamil party

External affairs minister SM Krishna concluded his four-day visit to Sri Lanka last week, without meeting the country's main Tamil political party of the Srilanka Tamils -TNA. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said Krishna was to hold talks with them today morning, but the meeting was put off till noon giving him time to return to Colombo from the southern town of Hambantota where he opened a consulate. "Later we were told that the minister is flying straight from Hambantota to the (international) airport and there is no possibility to have the scheduled meeting," TNA legislator Suresh Premachandra said. Tamil parties were disappointed over the failure to meet Krishna who had been pushing Sri Lanka to press ahead with devolution of power after the end of hostilities last year.

The TNA which was once seen as a proxy of Tamil Tigers has distanced itself from the guerrillas after their defeat in a no-holds-barred military campaign that ended in May last year with the killing of the top Tiger leadership. Krishna's visit to the island coincided with what the Tigers used to mark as their heroes' week. It was on November 27 that the late Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran used to deliver his annual policy statement.