Will Lanka allow aid ship to unload?

For almost two weeks a ship carrying relief supplies for displaced Lankan Tamils is waiting in the international waters off Chennai.

The Sri Lankan government turned it away last week citing procedural defects. The consignment was sent by the European Tamil diaspora.

And for the second time, DMK chief Karunanidhi wrote a letter to Foreign Minister SM Krishna seeking Centre's intervention.

"The relief materials sent through the ship be unloaded and handed over to people in the war zone," said A Raja, DMK MP and Union IT Minister.

Sri Lanka says its response will be positive.

"We discussed the ship and we have given a positive reply," said Basil Rajapaksa, Special Envoy to Sri Lankan President.

But the Tamil diaspora isn't impressed.

The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora says that it would like to actively participate in brining relief to the Tamil refugees in the post-conflict scenario in Sri Lanka.

They also claim that they are already in the process of re-organising themselves to negotiate for the Tamil people in Sri Lanka.

"If the Sri Lankan government really wants reconciliation it has to reconciliate with the diaspora. The thing is that the Sri Lankan government can do is take the ship back to the Lanka sea unload the things and take it to the people in the camps," said Thiruchchoti Thiru, Coordination Committee, Tamils in France.

More than three lakh Tamils are in Sri Lankan camps without enough food and medicines. Even after crushing the LTTE these areas continue to be out of bounds for the international media.