Police detain a college student during a protest in Chennai demanding the probe into war crimes allegedly perpetrated by the Sri Lankan government.
By V Jagannathan IANS/Chennai
The Tamil Nadu assembly yesterday urged the federal government to introduce a resolution in the UN Security Council seeking a referendum in Sri Lanka to carve out an independent Tamil Eelam state.
A resolution moved by the AIADMK-controlled house said Tamils living in Sri Lanka as well as Tamils of Sri Lankan origin in other countries should take part in the referendum.
The resolution also urged India to stop describing Sri Lanka as a friendly nation and sought an international probe on war crimes during the war against the Tamil Tigers that left thousands dead.
It said those responsible for the alleged war crimes should be tried by an international court.
The federal government was also asked to impose economic sanctions on the island nation until the “oppression” on Tamils there ended.
Speaking in the house, the chief minister J Jayalalithaa referred to the widespread protests by students in the state demanding action against Sri Lanka over the deaths of Tamil civilians in the war against the LTTE.
She also spoke about the UN Human Rights Council resolution that pulled up Colombo over accusations that many innocent Tamils died in the military blitzkrieg against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Sri Lanka crushed the LTTE and wiped out its leadership in May 2009, ending one of the world’s longest running conflicts.
“India should stop calling Sri Lanka a friendly nation,” Jayalalithaa said.
“There should be an international probe on the war crimes during the war (against the Tamil Tigers) and people responsible for that should be tried before an international court,” she said.
She described as a victory for her government the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) decision not to hold any cricket match in Tamil Nadu if Sri Lankan players were involved.
On Tuesday, she told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that her government would allow IPL matches in the state only if no Sri Lankan player, umpire, official or support staff took part in the matches.
She accused opposition party DMK president M Karunanidhi of being insincere vis-a-vis the Sri Lankan Tamil issue.
She charged the Congress-led Indian government, of which the DMK was a major partner, with helping Sri Lanka to kill Tamils.
She said Karunanidhi revived the Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO) only after his DMK lost power in the state in 2011.
The chief minister said New Delhi had not taken any action on the resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu assembly in 2011 urging India to impose economic sanctions on Sri Lanka and approach the UN to declare those responsible for the “genocide” in the island as war criminals.
Jayalalithaa said it was regrettable that the Indian government was indifferent to the Tamil issue and not respecting Tamil sentiments.
She said she had introduced the new resolution in the house to show “the entire Tamil community’s feelings”.
Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu are separated by a narrow strip of sea.
Since defeating the Tamil Tigers, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government has been under pressure, especially from Western countries, seeking an independent probe into war crimes allegations.
Chandy offers support to Kochi over IPL matches
The Kerala government yesterday offered full support to the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) if the need arose to stage matches at Kochi for the sixth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) that begins April 3.
“The KCA had approached us that there could arise a probability wherein Kochi could stage a few matches of the IPL. We have offered our full support and complete security arrangements would be provided and other support systems also would be in place,” said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to reporters after the weekly cabinet meeting here.
The KCA office bearers, led by its secretary T C Mathew, had approached Chandy on Tuesday after reports that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking that Sri Lankan players and officials be excluded from IPL matches to be staged in Chennai.
Jayalalithaa wrote the letter following increased political tension in the state over the treatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Mathew told IANS that they are ready to host matches if there are any issues.
“We have already hosted IPL matches (fourth edition) in 2011 and we have no issues in organising it this time,” said a confident Mathew.
The sixth edition of IPL has 10 matches in Chennai. Thirteen Sri Lanka players are included in various teams while Nuwan Kulasekara and Akila Dananjaya are members of the local franchisee - Chennai Super Kings.
The KCA is confident they can host the matches at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium at Kochi, which is the only one in the state of international standard and has already staged eight One-Day Internationals (ODI) in the past 14 years. The last was held in January this year when the English team toured the country.
KCA also promised to host IPL matches if another venue, Bangalore, faced any difficulty. “Assembly elections are going to be held in Karnataka in the first week of May and if they need our help to stage some of their home matches in view of security arrangements, we have told them that we are ready,” said Mathew.