Vaiko, supporters held, attempt protest demo on Lanka Tamils

Chennai, Oct 10 (UNI) Marumalarchi DMK (MDMK) General Secretary Vaiko and hundreds of his partymen were arrested today, when they attempted to stage a protest demonstration in front of the Sashtri Bhavan on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue.

Police arrested Mr Vaiko and about 2,000 of his party volunteers, for violating prohibitory orders, when they tried to take out a procession from Arts college to the Central government office.

Earlier, tension prevailed when police removed a make-shift platform, put up near the Arts college junction off Anna salai for Mr Vaiko to address the gathering.

Condemning the police action, Mr Vaiko said democracy was dead in the state and the party was not even allowed to stage a peacefull demonstration in support of the suffering Tamils in Sri Lanka.

In his address, the MDMK leader, a staunch supporter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), launched a blistering attack on the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre for ''providing military assistance to Sri Lanka,'' which was being used to wipe out the Tamils in the island.

The Centre got exposed when the LTTE destroyed the radars supplied by the Indian government in an air attack, in which three technocrates from India were injured, Mr Vaiko said.

He said the party had nothing against Mr Manmohan Singh, but condemned the attitude of the Indian government. The MDMK leader also condemned the Centre for providing monetary assistance to the Lankan Government, which had used the money to procure arms and ammunition from Pakistan.

Launching a tirade against the DMK government in Tamil Nadu, Mr Vaiko said Chief Minister M Karunanidhi remained a silent spectator when the Centre was offering military assistance to the island government.

Having failed to prevail upon the Centre to stop the military assistance and stop the genocide against the Tamils in Sri Lanka, Mr Karunanidhi had lost the moral right to talk about the Tamils, he alleged.

Accusing letting down of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Chief Minister had no right to convene an all party meeting to discuss their plights, he said.

UNI WS RL NS1718