Chennai, Apr 29 : Former United Nations diplomat and writer Shashi Tharoor has asked the Rajapaksa Government to give a devolution package to its Tamil civilians to give them an honoured place in the country.

Tharoor recalled that the Sri Lanka Government had announced a couple of years ago that it would give a devolution package to the Tamils. In effect, it would give the Tamils a homeland with in the united Sri Lanka.

"I speak purely on personal basis, just as an individual who has looked at all of this, and not speaking for the Congress Party. This is the best solution so that the Tamil people of Sri Lanka feel that they have honoured place in their own country. They have the authority to run their own affairs to the extend possible within one united Sri Lanka," he said on the sidelines of a convocation function here on Tuesday.

Tharoor, who is also a candidate of the Congress party, applauded the initiative of the government to provide relief assistance to Sri Lanka

"I very strongly applaud the decision of government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to announce relief assistance to Sri Lanka. We have been particularly concern about the plight of Tamil civilians who have been caught on one hand between the military action by their own government and on the other hand being trapped by the actions of a terrorist group that prevented them from moving freely," Tharoor said.

Diplomatic pressure over the war had boiled over the past week with the UN Security Council, the United States and others demanding Sri Lanka stop its offensive and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) surrender to avert rising civilian casualties.

National Security Adviser M. K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse after New Delhi demanded a truce in the closing phase of a 25-year war. (ANI)