International Bankers discuss post-tsunami scenario with Tamilselvan
“Please convey our condolences to all the people in bereavement over the loss of their loved ones and the impact tsunami made in their lives, and the institutions we represent, would continue extending solidarity in the reconstruction efforts” said World Bank’s Country Director Peter Harold in a meeting with Mr.S.P.Tamilselvan at the Peace Secretariat in Kilinochchi today, 13 January 2005.
 Associated with him in the meeting was Alessandro Pio, Country Director, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Brian Smith, Post Conflict Specialist, ADB, Jeremy Carter, Sr. Resident Representative IMF, Tomoyuki Kimura, Director, Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Ueshima Takumi, Resident Representative, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Mitsuo Kawaguchi Counsellor, Embassy of Japan and Mr. Naresha Duraiswamy of the World Bank. Mr. Tamilselvan briefed the team on the current status of on-going relief and rehabilitation programmes for the displaced people in the welfare centres and stresed the importance of a coordinated effort at the district level. Referring to the fear in the minds of the Tamil people as to the pattern of discrimination Colombo adopts in allocation of resources for relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction activities, the Political Head said that the international community has a moral responsibility to take stock of the situation in the context of the devastation already caused by two decades of war and the cease-fire having failed to deliver normalcy. This, Mr. Tamilselvan said, necessitates innovative modalities to ensure that the affected people get the benefits according to their local needs and reconstruction plans formulated at the local level. It is very essential, Mr.Tamilselvan said, that all of us act with circumspection and poloitical wisdom in picking the thread of commonality in the disaster and try to weave into the fabric of the body politic, consensus and joint effort that would build confidence and mutual trust and thereby lead to progress in the political resolution of the decades old conflict in the island. Contextually relating the pre-tsunami period for the Tamil people in the NorthEast vis-à-vis the infrastructure devastation caused by war, Mr. Tamilselvan said, is an essential element that cannot be wished away when equitable distribution of international aid for tsunami impact is taken on board.
13 January 2005
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Europe which has a total population of 800 million is made up of 45 language based nation states. South Asia which has a total population of one billion, (1000 million) is comprised of four states. Who is preventing and therefore benefiting by limiting new nation-states in South Asia?
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