TESO Conference Will Discuss Tamil Eelam, says Karuna

DMK has always been with the Lankan Tamils and the revival of TESO should be a step in this direction.

M Karunanidhi photo courtesy: topnews.in

(CHENNAI Press Trust of India) - Insisting on non-violent means to achieve a separate Tamil Eelam, DMK chief M Karunanidhi today said the now revived Tamil Eelam Supporters' Organisation (TESO) will discuss ways and means to fulfil it.

Addressing a public conference here to condemn "foisting" of cases against his party colleagues by the AIADMK government, Karunanidhi said his party had stood by the Sri Lankan Tamils for the past 50 years and his government had even faced dismissal for the Lankan cause.

"Our governments had been dismissed twice for supporting the Lankan cause. We defied the Centre's directive to accord a reception to the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) upon its return to the country," he said.

IPKF, whom he described as a "chaos force," is accused of various atrocities against civilian Tamils during its peacekeeping operations in the war-torn in island republic in the late 80s.

Karunanidhi said the Tamils' freedom struggle was led by veteran Tamil leader Chelvanayagam to "uphold the Tamils' welfare, peace, their language, culture and arts," but the youth later took to armed struggle "angered by the atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan government", in an apparent reference to the now decimated LTTE.

Very few armed struggles had achieved the desired objectives, he said, adding, Tamils in the neighbouring country were still subject to many hardships.

DMK has always been with the Lankan Tamils and the revival of TESO is a step in this direction, he said, adding that the August 5 conference of the organisation would discuss ways and means to ensure a "dawn" for the Tamils, hinting at a separate homeland.

Foreign scholars and politicians would participate in the conference, he said.

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