The Hindu : Front Page : Pro-LTTE activities will not help Sri Lankan Tamils: Chidambaram

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Monday, Oct 27, 2008
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Pro-LTTE activities will not help Sri Lankan Tamils: Chidambaram

Special Correspondent

“India has not extended any military help to the island nation”

Call to end war in Sri Lanka
Congress, DMK alliance “very strong”

SIVAGANGA: Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has condemned pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam speeches and activities in the State.

Speaking to reporters at Karaikudi on Sunday, he said dangerous speeches could not be accepted and would not help Sri Lankan Tamils in any manner. The State government had taken action against them. Those who delivered dangerous speeches should realise their mistake and change themselves.

Refusing to comment on the ultimatum of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to the Centre to stop the war in Sri Lanka, he said that he had discussed the Sri Lankan Tamils issue with Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee and Surface Transport Minister T.R. Baalu. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also held a discussion. Sri Lankan envoy Basil Rajapaksa had come to New Delhi for a discussion. He hoped that there would be an acceptable solution to the issue.

Stating that India had not extended any military help to the island nation, Mr. Chidambaram said it was a false campaign orchestrated by a few parties.

The Congress had been demanding for the last 30 years that a solution to the ethnic Tamils issue be found without affecting the united framework of Sri Lanka. But it should ensure equal rights to Tamils like Singhalese people.

In fact, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi took serious and constructive steps to find a workable solution. Mr. Chidambaram said he himself had asked the LTTE several times to come for negotiation. But, it rejected the offers.

The party was of the view that the ongoing war in Sri Lanka should be stopped as hundreds of innocent Tamils had become refugees in their own country. Asked about the Chief Minister’s remark that some were trying to create rift between the DMK and the Congress, he said the alliance was formed by AICC chief Sonia Gandhi and Mr. Karunanidhi. “It is very strong.”

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