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“Mobilise relief materials for Sri Lankan Tamils”

Jayalalithaa

CHENNAI: The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Jayalalithaa on Thursday urged the Union government to mobilise relief materials for Sri Lankan Tamils who were suffering without food, clothing, shelter or medicines.

In a statement, she said in the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka, “thousands of innocent civilian Tamils” had been displaced. They had been “rendered homeless” and were “living as refugees” in their own homeland. “They are struggling without food, medicines and shelter. Women and children are forced to bear the brunt of these problems. This situation has been in existence for several months now,” the AIADMK leader said.

Explaining her party’s position on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, she said her party recognised the rights of the Tamils for equality with Sinhalese. “We recognise their demand for equality before law, equality in educational institutions and equality in employment. We recognise their just struggle for self determination. We also recognise their struggle for an autonomous Tamil homeland within the federal set-up of Sri Lanka. What we are opposed to is an armed struggle, which has lost its way, as a result of which thousands of innocent men, women and children on either side are being wantonly killed. We are distressed that a former Indian Prime Minister was brutally assassinated on Tamil soil…We are also opposed to the policy of annihilation followed by the protagonists of this armed struggle to eliminate political opponents including Tamils. There are two very clear and distinct issues. The Tamils’ fight for self determination is one. Tamil militancy or terrorism is the other. We support the first. We oppose the latter,” she said.

Ms. Jayalalithaa criticised Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi for not displaying enough commitment to the cause of the Sri Lankan Tamils.

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