Jayalalithaa justified killings of Tamils: Karunanidhi
July 3, 2010 01:53 pm
CHENNAI: In his repartee to AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa’s accusation that he was a “war criminal,” visàvis the Sri Lankan issue, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Friday said the AIADMK supremo had sought to justify the killings of Lankan Tamils during the last year’s war.
In a statement, he referred to a statement of Jayalalithaa on January 17, 2009 in which she said: “The Lankan army’s intention is not to kill the Tamils. Killings of innocents are inevitable in a war and no country is an exception. The LTTE is using Tamils as shields in the war against the Lankan army.”
Recalling the statement passed in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly during the previous AIADMK regime in 2002 that demanded the arrest and handing over the custody of LTTE chief Prabhakaran to India, he wondered if “those with a heart” could forget that.
When an all-party meeting condemned the annihilation of Tamils in Sri Lanka during the war, Jayalalithaa said people had “doubts” if Karunanidhi was acting in favour of the LTTE, he said.
Lamenting that the media had forgotten the statement of Jayalalithaa which said that the Indian government does not have the powers to stop the war and that it was against the LTTE, a terrorist organisation, Karunanidhi said the leader of the main opposition had accused him of writing an elegy in honour of slain LTTE leaders.
Underlining that the DMK had been striving for the well being of Sri Lankan Tamils since 1956, the Chief Minister quoted a letter of S.C. Chandrahasan, the son of Selvanayagam, the tallest leader of Eelam Tamils who had reposed faith in him. – (Indian Express)