Will get Sri Lankan Tamils their rights: Jayalalithaa
Chennai, Aug 11 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa Thursday declared that her government will not rest till Sri Lankan Tamils are rehabilitated, allowed to live in their own places and are treated at par with the majority Sinhalese community.
Slamming Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa for his remarks that the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils are being espoused to gain political mileage, Jayalalithaa said her government would take necessary diplomatic efforts to get the Sri Lankan Tamils their just rights.
Replying to a calling attention motion, she alleged that thousands of Tamils were killed by the military as the Sri Lankan military crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2008-09.
Jayalalithaa said the Sri Lanka Army even bombed sterile zones and hospitals. Colombo, she alleged, blocked humanitarian aid from reaching the needy.
She asked the central government to condemn Gotabaya Rajapaksa -- younger brother of Sri lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa -- for his remarks aimed at the Tamil Nadu chief minister.
On June 8, the state assembly passed a resolution urging the Indian government to impose economic sanctions on Sri Lanka and approach the UN to declare those responsible for the "genocide" in the island nation as war criminals.