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India committed to helping Tamils

India is doing what it can to help the beleaguered Tamil community in Sri Lanka lead "a life of dignity and honour", Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday.

  • Agencies
  • Published: 22:58 May 9, 2009
  • Gulf News

Chennai: India is doing what it can to help the beleaguered Tamil community in Sri Lanka lead "a life of dignity and honour", Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday.

The prime minister told journalists while on a campaign tour here that he was "deeply concerned over the very difficult situation in Sri Lanka" where thousands have died in a military onslaught aimed at crushing the Tamil Tigers.

"This has caused great concern to people everywhere. We are doing all we can to ensure that the Tamil people in Sri Lanka are assured a life of dignity, peace and honour in Sri Lanka," he said.

Manmohan Singh said the Indian government's topmost concern was to provide relief and succour to the mass of Tamil civilians displaced from the war zone still held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

"Our position in the past is that we would certainly want Tamil people to get (a settlement) where they can lead a life with dignity and respect."

Manmohan Singh emphasised that any solution to the conflict needed to be found "within a unified Sri Lanka".

The prime minister ridiculed Tamil Nadu politicians who have threatened to send the Indian Army to Sri Lanka to carve out an independent Tamil state.

"What is possible and what is not possible is a matter of speculation," he said.

"We are dealing with a sovereign country. It is not easy to march armies to a sovereign state. There is a certain thing called international law. I think these are all known to all those who are making these tall promises."

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