India Asks Sri Lanka to Extend Ceasefire for Safety of Tamils
Worried over the fate of Tamils trapped in the conflict going on between army and LTTE, India has asked Sri Lanka to extend the two-day truce in the war to enable civilians to leave for secure areas.
Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the continuation of precipitated military action leading to further civilian casualties at this time would be totally unacceptable.
“India is deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka. The continuing conflict has taken a heavy toll on Tamil civilians,” Mukherjee said in Kolkata.
Needless to add, Indian politicians are under constant pressure to save Sri Lankan Tamils, who are intimately connected to about 60 million Tamils in Tamil Nadu.
Given the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, the issue becomes far more sensitive now and Congress party hopes to return to power riding on votes from southern Indian states.
It should be noted that Sri Lanka’s two-day humanitarian truce drew to a close on Wednesday and the military consequently announced it was now free to start a final attack to end the 25-year-old war against the Tamil guerillas.
Mukherjee said the two day-truce was not enough to allow Tamil civilians to get away from the conflict zones.
According to the claims of Sri Lankan military, only 1,000 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels remain now, and accuse them of holding around 100,000 civilians as human shields.
