Vaiko flays Naval officer’s remarks

Pro- LTTE Tamil political party in Tamil Nadu, the MDMK general secretary Vaiko on Sunday said the remark of Naval officer in-charge of Tamilnadu Commodore P E Van Halteren that Sri Lankan Navy had never deliberately fired at Indian fishermen in Palk Straits was ‘unwarranted and unjustified’ comment.

Flaying the statement of the Naval officer that Indian fishermen fell prey to the crossfire between the Lankan Navy and LTTE in the international waters, Vaiko charged in his letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that since 1970's there were more than 900 attacks on fishermen who were killed, their boats and fishing nets destroyed by the Lankan Navy.
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Vaiko accused the Naval officer Van Halteren of defending and supporting the Lankan Navy.

Though the Indian government has admitted in Parliament that Tamil fishermen were killed by the Lankan Navy, ‘I am pained to point out there is a nefarious nexus between Lankan and Indian Navies,’ Vaiko said in the letter to the Prime Minister.

Moreover, it was a proven fact that the Lankan Navy had entered into Indian waters and attacked Tamil fishermen many times without number, he stressed.

He said the ‘arrogant utterances’ of Indian Navy officers reflected a ‘clandestine assistance of Indian government to the racist Sri Lanka in their military attacks against the Tamils.’

Vaiko further charged that Indian Navy had never attempted to protect Tamilnadu fishermen by warding-off attacks of the Lankan Navy all these years.

In the letter, Vaiko requested the Prime Minister to stop forthwith the supply of arms to Sri Lanka and give instructions to the Naval officers not to pursue their ‘nefarious game’.