India Airdrops Food to Tamils, Gets Protest From Sri Lanka
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NEW DELHI — India, rebuffed by Sri Lankan gunships in its attempt to deliver relief supplies by boat to the warn-torn island, today parachuted emergency goods into the besieged Jaffna Peninsula.
Sri Lanka immediately protested the move as a “naked violation of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and independence.”
Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Gopalaswami Parthasarthy said five Soviet-built AN-32 transports each carried five tons of food and medicine and were accompanied by four French-made Mirage-2000 fighter jets.
He referred to the relief supplies as “a consignment” of emergency goods, but he refused to answer questions about whether more would be flown in to the tiny island off India’s southern tip.
India, which serves as exile headquarters for Tamil rebels fighting the Sri Lankan army, says the aid is intended for Tamil civilians caught up in the warfare. The army completed a weeklong offensive against the rebels on Monday. Death toll estimates range from 300 to 1,000.
Sri Lanka says the aid is unwanted and unneeded. “We have strongly protested this naked violation of Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and independence,” a spokesman at Sri Lanka’s High Commission in New Delhi said today.
President Junius R. Jayewardene called his security council into emergency session.
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