Withdraw Indian defence delegation to SL: Thirumavalavan, Vaiko

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 December 2007, 15:39 GMT]
The Indian Government should revive the stalled peace talks in the island instead of extending defence cooperation to the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), said Thol. Thirumavalavan, General Secretary of the Tamilnadu-based Viduthalai Chiruthhaika'l Kadchi (VCK, the Liberation Panthers party) during a press meet in Chennai, Monday that was reported in sections of the Indian media. Meanwhile, Vaiko, leader of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) wrote a letter to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday urging him "to stop forthwith any form of military assistance or guidance to Sri Lanka."

Urging the centre to respect the sentiments of 6.5 crore Tamils, Thirumavalavan demanded the immediate withdrawal of the middle level delegation from India to discuss defence cooperation with Colombo. He called upon Centre to pressurize the GoSL from carrying any further air raids on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and emphasized that this gesture would be reciprocated by the Tigers who were equipped with an air wing of their own.

Thirumavalavan urged union ministers and parliamentarians from Tamil Nadu to meet the Indian President, Prime Minister and Indian National Congress president Sonia Gandhi to effect the withdrawal of the Indian delegation to Colombo.

The VCK leader said that the GoSL was trying its level-best to weaken the struggle for independent Eelam by spreading baseless rumours that LTTE leader Velupillai Pirapakaran has been injured in an air attack. He said he was unable to comprehend why the Indian Government continued to support the GoSL that kept killing Indian fishermen and bombarding Tamil civilians in the northern parts of Sri Lanka.

Vaiko, in his letter to the Indian prime minister, strongly condemned the decision to send military experts to advice and assist Colombo's "diabolical genocidal military attacks against the Tamils". He alleged that "some of the top-level officials of the Indian Government have been all along working hand-in-glove with the GoSL" by carrying out disinformation campaign and giving menacing guidance to the Indian Government.

The MDMK general secretary pointed out that though the Indian Government had not inked the defence cooperation pact with Colombo in 2004, it was "clandestinely" providing all military assistance to GoSL in the ongoing confrontation that has so far claimed the lives of thousands of Tamils.

He warned that if the "Indian Government continued to arms supply and logistics support it will sow seeds of rancour, anger and despair in the minds of the Tamil people in the long run, which may not be visible at present."

Vaiko reminded Manmohan Singh that India had grievously failed in its duty to condemn the GoSL for brutally killing 61 Tamil schoolgirls at the Senchcholai orphanage on August 14, 2006 and the killing of 17 Tamil employees of Action Against Hunger in Muttur on August 8, 2006. He also termed as "unforgivable," India's act of permission refusal to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to transport food and medicine collected in Tamilnadu to the affected Tamil people in Sri Lanka.

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