Jayalalithaa flays Centre on Sri Lankan Air Force training programme

Chennai: Launching a scathing attack on the Centre for its "callous and adamant attitude" in training Sri Lankan defence personnel in India, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday demanded that New Delhi desist from such acts and that they be sent back to their country immediately.

"The people of Tamil Nadu are frustrated and outraged by this callous and adamant attitude of the Government of India in persistently giving training to personnel belonging to the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in India," she said in a strongly-worded letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Recalling her strong opposition to the nine Sri Lankan Airmen being trained at Tambaram in Chennai, who were subsequently shifted to Bangalore, she said it has come to her notice that another batch of Lankan armed forces personnel were visiting Chennai as part of a training programme.

The TN CM launched a scathing attack on the Centre for its \'callous and adamant attitude\' and asked it to desist from such acts.

Air Vice Marshal Jegath Julanga Diaz of the SLAF and Rear Admiral S Ranasinghe of the Lankan Navy, undergoing training at National Defence Academy, New Delhi, and 25 other trainees belonging to various countries had arrived at Coonoor in the state to visit the Defence Service Staff College, she said.

"Imparting training to personnel belonging to the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in defence training institutions in India and allowing them to visit Tamil Nadu reveals the utter disrespect shown to the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu," the chief minister said.

"I, therefore, request you to give suitable instructions to the Ministry of Defence to desist from giving any training to personnel belonging to the Sri Lankan Armed Forces anywhere in India and send such personnel back to Sri Lanka immediately," she said in the letter.

She said the Tamil Nadu Assembly had passed a resolution last year demanding action against those charged with war crimes in the island nation during the peak of internal conflict and economic embargo on Colombo by India to ensure it acted towards the rehabilitation of Tamils lodged in camps.

"Tamils across the world feel that the sentiments of the Tamils have been trampled on by the Government of India not only by its inaction on this resolution, but also by continuing to give preferential treatment by way of providing technical training to defence personnel belonging to Sri Lanka," she said.

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