New Delhi's top diplomatic agent reported during Friday that India has asked Sri Lanka to bestow limited autonomy to its ethnic Tamil minority. At the same time guarantee genuine reconciliation five years in succession to crushing Tamil guerrillas.

Additionally known that the Indian High Commissioner (ambassador) Y. K. Sinha said New Delhi had also urged Colombo to probe accusations that its troops destroyed thousands of Tamil civilians in the final months of fighting in 2009. Sinha told the Foreign Correspondents' Association of Sri Lanka that their focus has been to encourage the government of Sri Lanka to show concrete movement towards a meaningful devolution of powers.

Its their our anticipation that the government of Sri Lanka, recognising the critical importance of genuine reconciliation, acts with vision and sagacity. Sinha's remarks came in subsequent to New Delhi kept back from voting on a US-initiated resolution censuring Colombo at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and approving establishment of an international probe into war crimes allegedly committed by Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger rebels toward the end of the conflict.

(AW:SB)