India makes diplomatic push after Sri Lanka war ends

By Sanjeev Miglani

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India sent two top envoys to Sri Lanka on Thursday to offer help for Tamil civilians displaced in recent fighting and to seek an early political solution after the defeat of the rebel Tamil Tigers.

The trip by National Security Adviser M.K.Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon signalled renewed Indian engagement after a largely hands-off approach over the past two years as its close neighbour pursued a military end to the 25-year-old ethnic conflict.

New Delhi is also seeking to calm Tamils in India, mainly in southern Tamil Nadu state, home to 60 million people who are closely linked to the Tamils of Sri Lanka, analysts said.

"The trip is partly aimed at the constituency inside India, address the concerns of many people here at the very large level of suffering of civilians," said Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute of Conflict Management (ICM).

"Beyond that, there is the more serious issue of ensuring that Tamils get a fair deal," he said. The ICM tracks insurgencies across South Asia

Unofficial and unverified U.N. tallies show 7,000 civilians have been killed since January alone. Aid agencies say some 280,000 ethnic Tamils who fled the war zone are being held in overcrowded refugee camps.

On Wednesday, the world body accused Sri Lankan authorities of blocking access to civilians still in the former war zone or who have fled to camps for displaced people.

Sahni said it was possible that a handful of Liberation Tigers of Tami Eelam (LTTE) cadres may have smuggled themselves into the camps for the displaced, and authorities were trying to screen the former combatants.