Govt. pledges engagement with India as protests mount in Tamil Nadu

Friday, 22 February 2013 01:32 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

nKaru returns from pilgrimage, Jayalalitha calls off sporting event, but no relations with south says Keheliya

By Uditha Jayasinghe

The Sri Lankan Government has decided that it will continue engagement with its Indian counterpart over anti-Sri Lankan attacks in Tamil Nadu but will stand by its rejection of war crimes allegations, a top Minister said yesterday.

Referring to the latest documentary by Channel 4 which shows the alleged killing of Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE) leader V. Prabhakaran’s 12-year-old son by the Sri Lankan military during the last phase of the war in 2009, Cabinet spokesman and Minister Keheliya Rambukwella insisted that it was completely fabricated.

Reiterating the rejections that had been voiced during the first two documentaries by Channel 4, Rambukwella remarked that highlighting the death of Prabhakaran’s son was clearly to obtain emotive support for the US led resolution on Sri Lanka to be presented at the upcoming United Nations Human Rights Council sessions.

“If you analyse it, this has been a pattern. It is now the third year after the demise of Prabhakaran and the clearing of terrorism. We have experienced that at the UN Human Rights Council, they bring in allegations that are very sensational from time to time. And I don’t see any difference this time. One is that they waited for three to four years before they came forward with this so called evidence. It should have come earlier. So obviously there is a pattern of events and there is an agenda,” he said.

He added that the Government, which has already requested extra security from the Indian government for Sri Lankan businesses in southern India after an attack on a branch of a State bank operating in Tamil Nadu, would continue engagement with only the Central Indian government officials.

He rejected any diplomatic engagement with the Tamil Nadu government despite an attack on the national carrier SriLankan Airlines’ office in Chennai and Chief Minister Jayalalitha’s move to cancel the 20th Asian Athletics Championships because they would include a team from Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile on Thursday, Sri Lanka’s main Opposition, the United National Party (UNP) MP Karu Jayasuriya, who was on a pilgrimage to the temple town of Thirukkadaiyur in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, had to return after activists of various political parties, including pro-Eelam outfits, staged a demonstration in that town.

Indian media reported that this was the fourth return of Sri Lankans after protests from locals. The last incident was in September 2012 when 178 Sri Lankan pilgrims returned on a special flight after being attacked in the same town.

In the midst of tensions, Indian President Pranab Mukherjee has called on the Sri Lankan Government to provide equal rights to its Tamil minority. India is yet to decide on whether it will support Sri Lanka on the US resolution at the UNHRC.