Sangaree urges caution by Tamil Nadu

COLOMBO: TULF leader V. Anandasangaree has asked Tamil Nadu to act with care and caution in its dealings with the Sri Lankan ethnic problem and not allow its people to be swayed by the emotional speeches of local politicians ignoring their negative fall out in Sri Lanka.

In an open letter to the leaders and people of Tamil Nadu Sangaree said Tamil Nadu can play a balanced constructive role between the national interest of India and the basic aspirations of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

The former Parliamentarian observed that Tamil Nadu was not fully aware of the gruesome realities in the LTTE controlled areas where Tamils were living in slavery under the jackboot of oppression being subject to torture, abductions and forced conscriptions. "I have been accusing the LTTE of having detention camps, darkroom chambers and torture camps behind the iron curtain of the LTTE which is hardly known to the outside world", Sangaree says in his letter.

He hoped his appeal will open the eyes of the political leader of Tamil Nadu to the ground realities affecting the Tamils of Sri Lanka and act in favour of the Tamil society and not in favour of the LTTE.

He said the demand for a separate state of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka cannot and should not come from Tamil Nadu for the simple reason that whoever was in power at the centre had always ruled out a separate state of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka.

The veteran politician in his letter noted that the LTTE had lost its credibility to speak on behalf of the Tamils of Sri Lanka through its atrocities perpetrated on the innocent Tamil civilians adding that the recklessness, with which the LTTE cadres act, is the main cause for the large scale displacements of the people from their homes.

"Those who could afford, have fled to foreign countries and some others moved to India. All those who go to India are not simply refugees. They want their children to be saved from being enroled as child soldiers and also like to have their children educated which facilities are denied to them due to regular demonstrations and protest marches in which children are compelled to participate.

He said the Tamil people in Sri Lanka are now convinced that a separate Tamil state is not at all possible and that the LTTE can never succeed in getting it. The LTTE may be reluctant to concede this obvious fact.

He said Tamil Nadu can play a pivotal role in finding peace for the Tamils across the Palk Strait, by putting pressure on the LTTE to accept the Indian model, taking into serious consideration the immense hardships caused by them to the Tamils in several ways for well over 23 years.

"The LTTE is the main force that deprived the democratic and fundamental rights of the Tamils in Sri Lanka and considerably eroded into their Human Rights also. If a public announcement is made by the LTTE accepting the Indian model, the political solution is just at our doorstep and the country as a whole will be in a mood to accept it.

He charged that the report submitted by the TNA members of Parliament headed by R. Sampanthan in Delhi to the Indian Prime Minister was one-sided, which hardly said anything about the atrocities perpetrated on the innocent Tamil civilians by the LTTE.

"The LTTE's claymore mine attacks, hand grenade attacks and attacks by their Pistol groups, targeting the Government forces, take place almost everyday in a number of places, in which not only several service personnel but also large number of innocent civilians get killed or seriously injured.