We have to take our case before India: TNA

Colombo, May 24 (UNI) Tamil National Alliance (TNA) today charged the Sri Lankan government with having ''failed in its duty to protect the Tamil people in the country'' and said it is high time to place the case before the international community, ''particularly India''.

''We will have to take our case before the international community, particularly India, and we will have to tell them that there are people to be protected,'' TNA's parliamentary group leader and the restive Trincomalee district parliamentarian R Sampanthan told reporters here today.

Welcoming the election of ''Statesman M Karunanidhi'' as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the TNA leader expressed hope and confidence that Mr Karunanidhi would take interest in the resolution of the protracted ethnic crisis in the neighbouring Sri Lanka.

''Kalaignar Karunanidhi is a person with long experience and knowledge of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. We are confident that in due course, he would interest himself in the plight of the Tamils in Sri Lankan,'' Mr Sampanthan said.

Talking about the attack on the Tamil civilians in the North-East during the past couple of months and alleging the Sri Lankan Government of ''providing an atmosphere of impunity'', Mr Sampanthan said he wanted India ''to ensure that the Tamil people are not treated this way''.

Over the past weeks, he said more than 1000 Tamils have already crossed the high seas and landed in Tamil Nadu for safety while several of them have drowned on their way to Rameshwaram.

Meanwhile, addressing a media briefing later in the day, defence spokesman and Minister for Planning and Implementation Keheliya Rambukwella accused the LTTE of trying to get some refugees sent across to India's Southern State of Tamil Nadu ''so that they could make an issue within their political arena''.

UNI XC SHB KN2244