The AIADMK has called out the DMK for colluding with war criminals in Sri Lanka and allowing tens of thousands of Tamils to be massacred, stating that the Tamil Nadu party and the Congress party should be tried as "international war criminals".
"We will hold protest rallies at all district headquarters on Sept.25 condemning the DMK and Congress over the killings of innocent Tamils in Sri Lanka,” said AIADMK co-convener and Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami at a district secretaries’ meeting in Chennai this week. “We will highlight the 'deceit' enacted by these two parties on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue."
The meeting held at the party headquarters in Tamil Nadu went on to call for leaders of the DMK and Congress to be tried as war criminals, for colluding with the Sri Lankan government during the final phase of the armed conflict in 2009, where tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were massacred.
Referring to former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa's recent speech in New Delhi, where he praised “vital” Indian assistance for the Sri Lankan military campaign, the AIADMK said the DMK had “betrayed” Eelam Tamils.
"Now that Rajapaksa has openly admitted to all secrets in this regard, the DMK-Congress coalition government's aiding the killings of one and a half lakh Tamils and rapes of thousands of Tamil women should be treated as war crimes and those involved (here) should be made war criminals and given punishment," the meeting resolved.
Tamil Nadu BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan backed the AIADMK calls, stating that the protest they announced “is for the right cause”.
“The DMK and the Congress had committed war crimes,” said Tamilisai, demanding answers from Indian leaders as to what assistance the Sri Lankan government was given. “What is Stalin going to tell? What are Vaiko and Thirumavalavan going to say?” she asked.
Meanwhile DMK spokesperson KS Radhakrishnan hit back at the BJP leader’s criticism, stating that his party had always been staunchly supporting Eelam Tamils.
“The term ‘Eelam’ or its history did not begin from 2009 itself,” he said. “Even before you (Tamilisai) were born, Karunanidhi had been raising voice for the people of Eelam.”
See more from the Deccan Chronicle here, the New Indian Express here and the Hindu here.
