The Weekend Leader - Deepening debate

Meeting to discuss war crimes of Rajiv Gandhi and Mahinda Rajapakse

A Correspondent

17-September-2011

Vol 2 | Issue 37

Former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s Himalayan blunder of sending the Indian Peacekeeping Force to Sri Lanka in 1987 and the trail of tragic events it led to, starting with the Indian army’s atrocities against the Tamils during its fight with the LTTE, Rajiv’s assassination in 1991, and the Indian government’s support to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s genocidal war in 2009 which claimed the lives of an estimated 1.4 lakh Tamils will be the focus of a Hall Meeting organised by the Save Tamils Movement (STM) in Loyola College, Chennai, at 5.30 pm on September 19.

The meeting proposes to demand justice for Tamils who were subjected to atrocities by IPKF and the Sri Lankan army

STM’s coordinator T Senthil Kumar, a software professional, said they have taken up the issue of IPKF atrocities to counter the Congress party’s attempt to divert public attention from their movement to secure justice for the Sri Lankan Tamils by raising the Rajiv assassination case.

While human rights activists have demanded clemency to the three death row convicts in the Rajiv assassination case – Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan - Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu have demanded that they be hanged.

The IPKF is accused of killing hundreds of innocent Tamils and raping several women during its operations in Sri Lanka. In 1990, when the IPKF returned to India, the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi failed to receive the army protesting against its atrocities.

According to Senthil, Professor Ramu Manivannan, chair, department of politics and public administration, University of Madras, Tamil nationalist leader Thiyagu and Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam’s Viduthalai Rajendran, will be the main speakers at Monday’s meeting.

Only a couple of months ago, the Delhi Tamil Students Union had released a book titled ‘In the name of peace: IPKF massacres of Tamils in Sri Lanka’ at the Jawaharlal Nehru University Campus in New Delhi.
 
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