Tamils saddened by India's self serving attitude in Sri Lanka

by admin
Jul 1, 2008

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentary group leader R. Sampanthan, told a visiting delegation of top Indian officials that "Tamils believed all these years that they were the natural allies of India, but it is not so today."

 

Pointing out even the human rights violations against Tamils, abductions and genocide are largely ignored by India, Sampanthan told the visiting delegation: "India has not been very concerned about Tamil grievances but are only interested in safeguarding their own interests".

"We feel very sad about this," he said.

"We thought both Tamils and Indians were together but we believe India do not think that we’re together. But today India got the oil tanks in Trincomalee but Tamils, nothing," he told media after the meeting.

"In 1987, the Indo-Sri Lanka accord merged the North and the East but today it has been de-merged. And it guaranteed devolution of powers to the Tamils. But even after it was de-merged, India is not worried about Tamil interests. Indians are only concerned about their own interests."

After listening to Sampanthan the Indian delegation invited him and his party members to visit Delhi for further talks.

National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Alok Prasad and two other officials were present during the discussions.

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