by NewIndPress.com, August 4, 2004

CHENNAI: MDMK general secretary Vaiko on Wednesday reiterated his support to LTTE’s activities in Sri Lanka, stating that the Tigers were only fighting for a genuine cause in that country.

Speaking to mediapersons outside the POTA Special Court at Poonamallee, he said, “The LTTE is the only organisation which has the support of all the Tamils in Sri Lanka. The Lankan Government had crushed the Eelam Tamils for decades together and hence the LTTE’s fight for freedom is legitimate.”

By adopting a resolution in the Tamil Nadu Assembly seeking the extradition of Prabhakaran, Jayalalithaa Government had betrayed the people of Tamil Nadu, he stressed.

He hastened to add that the MDMK’s support to the LTTE in Sri Lanka did not mean that it would encourage violence in Tamil Nadu. “In fact, in the past eight-and-a-half years of the existence of our party, we have not indulged in a single violent incident. We are second to none in safeguarding tranquility in the State. What proof does Jayalalithaa have to call us terrorists and book us under the POTA?” he said.

By detaining her political adversaries under POTA she was only trying to divert the attention of the common people from the pressing issues before the state like the drought and the weavers’ sufferings, he charged.

Asked whether he would move any higher court to challenge his detention, he quipped, “Why should I move any other court now? We have a very strong case. Let the investigating agency file the charge-sheet. I will challenge it then. Till then, I would like to keep my cards close to my chest.”

He said the party had no difference of opinion with the Centre with regard to his case. “This case has been framed by the state government. We will fight it out. When the POTA was debated in the NDA meeting, I had raised serious doubts that it could be misused against the political opponents. However, the Centre had given an assurance that it would not be done and it has kept the word. It is the State Government which has misused the act. While challenging our case, we would like to stress the point that we are not against the POTA and the Act should remain on the statutes to fight the Pakistani terrorists.”

He said his party would leave it to the people of the State to sit in judgment over Jayalalithaa’s diversionary tactics and evil designs but added, “We are confident that justice will triumph at the end.”

He also condemned the arrest of Tamizhar Desiya Iyakkam leader Pazha Nedumaran under POTA.

On his prison life he said, “I read, read and read. I spend almost 18 hours reading every day.”

About the fan facility which he had declined, he said, “I rejected it because other ‘A’ Class prisoners are not provided fan in Vellore prison.”

Source: newindpress.com

(and more on Vaiko…)

Lankan Tamils and Vaiko’s Take on Defence Pact

by PK Balachanddran, Hindustan Times, July 31, 2004

(Colombo) A pro-LTTE daily on Saturday welcomed Indian politician Vaiko’s assurance that an India-Lanka defence pact, aimed at crushing the Sri Lankan Tamils, would not be signed. But at the same time, it expressed a fear that a section of Indian officialdom, traditionally opposed to the Sri Lankan Tamils and the LTTE, would continue to give clandestine support to the Sri Lankan Government’s anti-Tamil actions.

In an edit on the issue, the pro-LTTE Tamil daily Sudar Oli said that while politicians representing the majority Sinhala community were trumpeting the possibility of India and Sri Lanka entering into a defence pact, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) leader, Vaiko, was categorically saying that India would not sign any such agreement.

According to a detailed report in Thinakural on July 29, Vaiko met the Indian Minister for External Affairs, Natwar Singh, on Wednesday, and had a frank discussion on the Sri Lankan situation and the plight of the Tamil minority in the island. The minister was told that India should not see the Sri Lankan Tamils as an enemy and that India should do all it could to support the current peace process.

If India stood aloof, as it was doing, other powers like the US, China and Pakistan, would fill the vacuum, to India’s detriment, Vaiko warned. He pleaded with Singh not to sign a Defence Pact with the Sri Lankan Government as that would only be used to crush the Tamils’ legitimate aspirations and struggle.

When Vaiko referred to the recent deportation of the Sri Lankan Tamil MP, MK Eelaventhan, when the latter had arrived to attend a Tamil conference, Singh gave the impression that he was not aware of it. Vaiko concluded that the deed was done by a section of the bureaucracy in the Home and External Affairs Ministries without informing the Minister.

Thinakural quotes Vaiko as saying that this section of the Indian officialdom has always been against the Sri Lankan Tamils.

Though Vaiko would not assure that such deportations would not take place in the future, he did say that an Indo-Lanka Defence Pact was not on the cards at all. He also assured the Tamils that the Manmohan Singh Government would not do anything that would harm them.

Commenting on this, the Sudar Oli edit said that while what Vaiko had said could be true of India’s present political leadership, the bureaucracy was another kettle of fish altogether. In India, governments would come and go, but policies remained entrenched because of the bureaucracy, it pointed out.

Sure enough, the Manmohan Singh Government, as such, would not do anything against the Sri Lankan Tamils because of the compulsions of coalition politics, with the pro-Tamil MDMK, PMK and DMK having an exceptionally big say in matters of state. But the bureaucracy could find clandestine ways to render assistance to the Sri Lankan Government, even if it did not defy the political line openly, Sudar Oli pointed out.

Source: hindustantimes.com