Karnataka Tamils express solidarity with Eelam Tamils and demands immediate ceasefire

By Sam Rajappa - TNS

BANGALORE: Expressing serious concern over the plight of their brethren the Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Karnataka Tamil Sangams have urged the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to exert pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to immediately declare a ceasefire in the Island nation.

Representatives from 15 Tamil sangams in Karnataka, including those in Hubli, Mysore and KGF, participated in the meeting organised by the Bangalore Tamil Sangam on Sunday to express their moral support to the Eelam Tamils. The special meeting in which hundreds of Sangams members, including Sri Lanka Tamil MP Shivaraji Lingam and former Deputy Speaker of Tamil Nadu Assembly Pulamaipithan, took part.

In the letter, the sangam would appeal to the Indian Government to convince the Sri Lankan Government to immediately start negotiations with the Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka to find a political solution to the ethnic problem. “The military action would not provide a permanent solution,” Sangam vice-president M. Meenakshi Sundaram observed. “Negotiations should be through a neutral agency, preferably India,” he further said.

“Our support to the Tamils in Sri Lanka is not because they also speak Tamil, but out of humanitarian consideration as they are suffering untold miseries,” he said. He alleged that human rights of Tamils in Sri Lanka were being violated by the Government there through military action which had resulted in closing of roads in the Tamil areas and stopping supply of food, medicines and hospital services. The problem was intense in the north and eastern parts of Sri Lanka which had a large number of Tamils, he further said.

He also said Tamils in Sri Lanka were not migrants, but the original inhabitants who had lived there for generations. The Tamil population in Sri Lanka comprised Hindus, Muslims and Christians.

In his speech former Deputy Speaker of Tamil Nadu Assembly Pulamaipithan questioned the attitude of the Indian Prime Minister. “When the French president visited our country Mr. Manmohan Singh find it appropriate and raised the Turban issue for the Sikhs in France with him. But he fail to raise the Tamil issue with the Sri Lankan President and find a solution,” he charged.

The Special meeting started at 5 pm on Sunday concluded at 9 pm with a special screening of the Eelam Tamils plight DVD.