TESO: DMK calls for Tamil unity on Sri Lankan issue

 

Karunanidhi made the appeal while addressing members of the DMK-led Teso (Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation) which staged a protest urging the UN not allow Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa to participate in the UN general assembly meet to be held later this month.

 

Seeking unity among the Tamil community spread across the globe, the DMK president said, “If all the Tamils cooperate and struggle, we can ensure true freedom for Eelam Tamils and give them a life of self- respect.”

 

Hitting out at Rajapaksa, who the state political parties including the DMK hold guilty of large-scale killing of Tamil civilians during the last leg of the Eelam war in 2009, Karunanidhi said his opposition to the Sri Lankan President was in a democratic and peaceful means, “unlike his (Rajapaksa’s) violent ways.

 

Saying that the Lankan Tamils were forced to live as ‘slaves’, the nonagenarian said the struggles for their cause “will and should” continue. He exuded confidence that unity among Tamils will be a ‘catalyst’ in achieving the desired results.

 

The Teso protest, in which VCK leader Tirumavalvan among other DMK ally leaders took part, called for a political solution desired by Lankan Tamils and returning of fishermen’s boats captured by the Lankan navy. It also urged the Centre allow the UNHRC panel to hold its probe in India into alleged Lankan war crimes.