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India offers $100m to help Sri Lankan refugees

* Home minister says New Delhi was willing to provide aid if Colombo submits ‘plan of action’ on rehabilitation of Tamil civilians

CHENNAI: India offered Sri Lanka on Sunday $100 million to help war refugees return home and rebuild the country's ravaged north, as New Delhi seeks to engage in the island nation's post-war reconstruction and retain influence.

Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said India was willing to provide the aid package to Sri Lanka if it submitted a “plan of action” on rehabilitation of Tamil civilians. “Our concern is that the displaced Tamils should be resettled in their homes as early as possible,” the minister told reporters in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

A similar aid package was given by New Delhi to its southern neighbour in July after the Sri Lankan government announced victory in a 25-year war against Tamil Tiger separatists. The Indian government faces pressure to protect Sri Lankan Tamils, closely linked to about 60 million Tamils in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Some 260,000 Tamil refugees who fled fighting in the waning months of the war are now being held in military-run camps. Western countries, India and the United Nations are pressing the government to send them home. Though the rehabilitation process was slow in the beginning, it was likely to pick up, Chidambaram said after a meeting with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said 70-80 percent of the refugees will be resettled by January. So far, about 15,000 have been sent home.

Editor: Separately, an editor was arrested in Sri Lanka for reporting on an alleged rift between a senior military commander and the government after the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels, police and his newspaper said on Sunday. Chandana Sirimalwatte was held for questioning after police raided the offices of his “Lanka” newspaper, a spokesman for the paper said.

Police spokesman Nimal Mediwaka confirmed that the editor was arrested on Saturday, but declined to say why he was taken in.

The newspaper, which is closely linked to the opposition JVP, or People's Liberation Front, said Sirimalwatte had been questioned about a story in Friday's edition.

The paper had alleged there were attempts to discredit Chief of Defence Staff General Sarath Fonseka, who played a key role in the military's victory over Tamil rebels in May, after he reportedly refused to accept a civilian job. There is no official censorship in Sri Lanka, but many mainstream media organisations practice self-censorship fearing reprisals from the authorities. agencies

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