P.R. No. 690 Date:21.12.

2013
PRESS RELEASE

Text of the D.O. letter dated 20.12.2013 addressed by
Selvi J JAYALALITHAA, Honble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to
Dr. Manmohan Singh, Honble Prime Minister of India is reproduced
below:-
Over the last two years, I have written to you a number of times
bringing to your notice the deep, widespread and strong sentiments amongst
all sections of Society and all shades of opinion in Tamil Nadu on the need to
hold the present regime in Sri Lanka to account in the aftermath of the
ethnic civil strife in Sri Lanka, which was marked by an ethnic pogrom and
genocide against the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka. The Tamil Nadu Legislative
Assembly has already passed four Resolutions condemning the continuing
discrimination against the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka and violation of their
human rights and calling for strong response from the Government of India.
The present Sri Lankan regime is also persisting with its harsh and
unreasonable policy of launching punitive and totally unprovoked attacks
upon innocent Tamil Nadu fishermen eking out their meagre livelihood by
fishing in their traditional fishing waters. Such attacks and abductions are
followed by extended periods of detention in Sri Lankan jails, confiscation of
boats, fishing nets, and other fishing gear thereby causing extensive
economic losses, reducing them to penury and condemning the fishermen
and their families to considerable mental agony. The entire fishermen
community in Tamil Nadu is agitated over the acts of indiscriminate
abduction of our fishermen on the high seas and their prolonged
incarceration in prison.
Please refer to my letters dated 16.7.2012, 25.8.2012, 28.8.2012 and
8.6.2013, wherein I had unambiguously conveyed the deep sense of outrage
of the people of Tamil Nadu regarding the imparting of training to Sri Lankan
defence personnel at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, located
in the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu. While communicating Tamil Nadus strong
protest, I had urged that the Government of India should issue a clear policy
direction that the Ministry of Defence should not hereafter provide training,
or engage in any form of co-operation with the Sri Lankan Armed Forces,
until satisfactory and credible action is taken by the Government of
Sri Lanka to completely stop the human rights violations against the Tamil
minority in Sri Lanka and end the unprovoked and marauding attacks on
fishermen from Tamil Nadu. I had also written to you on 11.9.2013 that the
Government of India should cancel the agreement to supply naval warships
to Sri Lanka and ensure that no support of any kind is provided to the
Sri Lankan military forces. Most recently on 30.11.2013, I had written to
condemn the insensitive proposal made by the Indian Chief of Naval Staff to
enroll Sri Lankan Navy personnel in the four year Bachelor of Technology
course currently offered to Indian Naval officers.
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I am, therefore, totally dismayed to note from media reports that the
Indian Coast Guard is participating in a marine defence exercise and has
deputed ships, officers and men to Trincomalee, to participate in this
exercise which is reported to be commencing there on 21
st
December, 2013.
This is in complete and callous disregard of the strong views and emotions of
the people of Tamil Nadu clearly and unambiguously conveyed to the
Government of India, in my letters referred to above, through Assembly
Resolutions and through protests, agitations and demonstrations by the
people of Tamil Nadu.
However, the Government of India has still chosen to ride rough
shod over the groundswell of emotions in Tamil Nadu and has persisted with
its policy stance towards Sri Lanka. In fact, the Government of India has
extended on open hand of co-operation to the Sri Lankan Navy through the
defence related exercise. This is the same Sri Lankan Navy which continues
to prey upon innocent fishermen from Tamil Nadu with impunity and
subjects them to abduction, arrest, torture and long periods of detention.
Such an overt act of defence co- operation with a nation that puts down its
own hapless Tamil minority citizens and perpetrates serious human rights
violations upon them, can only be termed as outrageous and condemnable.
I wish to convey our strong protest against this insensitive policy of
defence co-operation with Sri Lanka, which totally ignores the impact it may
have upon not just the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu, but the
direct effect on the right to livelihood of the fishermen in the coastal districts
of the State. I, therefore, request you to urgently review this policy and
instruct the Ministry of Defence not to participate in the naval exercises in
Sri Lanka and to immediately recall the two Indian Coast Guard ships and
personnel.
May I request an urgent response on this sensitive issue?
*******
Issued by: Director of Information and Public Relations, Chennai 9
Date: 21.12.2013