India should put pressure on LTTE: TULF chief

The international community, especially India, should put pressure on the LTTE to refrain from killing innocent civilians in Sri Lanka, a senior Tamil politician has said.

"The time has now come for India to step in and tell the LTTE to keep hands off civilians," Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) president V Anandasangaree said.

"The LTTE's only hope now is to unleash fresh violence for which the Sinhalase are not prepared," he said in a statement from London.

"I condemn every killing. I believe that no one has any right to take the life of another," he said.

"It (the killings) will not take them (LTTE) anywhere. Instead they lose their credibility day by day. It is high time the international community warn the LTTE to refrain from causing the death of innocent civilians," he said.

He criticised the Tamil media in Lanka for not being categorical in blaming the LTTE for the killings of civilians in the country.

"I reiterate that the Tamil media, both print and electronic, should bear part of the blame. Their failure to condemn these killings in one voice, gives some encouragement to the LTTE terrorists."

"With a good network of their reporters, they can easily assist the authorities to detect the real culprits. Without doing their duty they find fault with others," he said.

He said the LTTE must confess that they can't give any protection to the Tamils and surrender their cadre to the forces.

Source: The Hindu