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11-07-2006

Sri Lanka naval chief in India
From Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, July 11 (IANS) Sri Lanka's new navy chief, Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, is visiting India amid concerns in both countries about spiralling violence in the island.

The admiral, making his first visit abroad since assuming the post, arrived here Saturday and spent a quiet Sunday before beginning his official programme Monday.

"The admiral has rightly chosen India as the first country he should be visiting," a Sri Lankan diplomat told IANS. "He will be meeting his counterparts in all three wings of the Indian military."

During the three-day visit, Admiral Karannagoda will meet the top Indian military brass besides going to the Eastern Naval Command at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington, Tamil Nadu. He will return home from southern India.

Both Indian and Sri Lankan sources said that the situation in the island nation, where the 2002 Norway-brokered ceasefire between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has virtually broken down, will come up for discussions.

The LTTE's naval wing, Sea Tigers, is bound to figure in the discussions.

"Well, there is no fixed agenda, but our Indian friends know what the LTTE is and everything about Sea Tigers," the Sri Lankan official said. "After all they operate in the waters dividing the two countries."

An Indian military official added: "The Sri Lankan situation would definitely be discussed, because if it comes to hostilities it will be the (Indian) navy that will be in the forefront in dealing with any influx of refugees. To that extent, a peaceful solution of the conflict is equally in India's interests.

"However, given (India's previous military) experience, India is not likely to take the initiative to offer any assistance other than humanitarian aid.

"As to whether Sri Lanka makes a specific request, it would be dealt with considering its implications, both political and military," the official added.

Admiral Karannagoda is one of the most heavily protected military figures in Sri Lanka, where an LTTE woman suicide bomber tried to assassinate the army chief, Lt. Gen. Sanath Fonseka, in April.

The general survived and is now hospitalized in Singapore.

On June 26, another LTTE suicide bomber succeeded in assassinating Maj. Gen. Parami Kulatunge, the army's number three, while he was driving to his office.

Source--Indo-Asian News Service