India must warn LTTE - Anandasangaree

TULF President V. Anandasangaree said on Wednesday that India should exhort the LTTE to end the massacres of civilians.

In a news release, he said the Tamil media, both print and electronic, should bear part of the blame for this trend. Their failure to condemn these killings in one voice, gives some encouragement to the LTTE terrorists. With a good network of their reporters, they can easily assist the authorities to detect the real culprits.

“At the moment, I am in the UK. I am informed that a Tamil daily based in Jaffna accused me for not condemning the killings of Tamils but only condemn the killings of Sinhalese. It is wrong for anyone to come to such conclusions. The said paper had made specific reference to the 16 dead bodies found in Kebithigollewa. These bodies had not been identified at the time I left Sri Lanka.

“If the editor of that paper claims to know the identities of those 16 unfortunate victims the most honourable thing for him to do is to bring it to the notice of the authorities, without dragging me into this.

Most of the killings in the North and the East are by the LTTE themselves. If the LTTE is serious they can easily prevent the rest of the killings. Large scale killings of Sinhalese in the South is undoubtedly by the LTTE. Why can’t this paper condemn these

killings ?,” he asked.

“I condemn every such killing as brutal and will not dare to encourage any such killings. The LTTE leader must cry halt to all killings. It will not take them anywhere. Instead they lose their credibility day by day. The LTTE’s only hope now is to start a backlash for which the Sinhalese are not prepared.

The Sinhalese know very well that half the Tamil population is living in the South amidst the Sinhalese and the Muslims and it is their duty to safeguard them. The Tamils trust the Sinhalese more than the LTTE, which is selfish and blood-thirsty. They know how difficult it would be for them to live under the LTTE.”

He said the Tamil people should realise their responsibility and help the Forces to detect any attempt by the LTTE to plant bombs and claymore mines.

If the LTTE claims that the Mannar claymore mine attack was by the penetrating unit of the Forces, LTTE must confess that they can’t give any protection to the Tamil Civilians and surrender their cadre to the Forces. The time has now come for India to step in and tell the LTTE “ hands off civilians”.