2ND LEAD

Moral support to Tigers not a crime –Thirumavalavan

[TamilNet, Monday, 17 December 2007, 16:49 GMT]
Extending moral support to the Liberation Tigers, on seeing the Tamils' sufferings in Sri Lanka was not a crime in any way, said Thol. Thirumavalavan, General Secretary of the Tamilnadu-based Viduthalai Chiruthhaika'l Kadchi (VCK, the Liberation Panthers party) according to news reports published in The New Indian Express, Monday. He added that providing moral support to the Tamil Tigers was not an offence even in countries like the UK, the US and Canada, where the organization is banned. "Tamils in these countries are conducting rallies, unveiling Pirapaharan's portrait and also running a radio service in their favour," he said.

He also pointed out that there was nothing wrong in supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as the Government of India has not extended the ban on the LTTE this year.

India imposed a ban on the LTTE in 1991, following Rajiv Gandhi's assassination by a Tamil woman suicide-bomber and the ban was being extended once in two years since then. The VCK leader alleged that the Central Intelligence authorities were creating a wrong impression that the LTTE cadres are moving through Tamil Nadu in a bid to justify the further extension of the ban.

He also criticized Congress leader E.V.K.S. Elangovan's appeal to the Tamil Nadu government to arrest LTTE supporters in the state. Elangovan, is incidentally the grand-nephew of 'Periyar' E.V.Ramasamy Naicker, the father-figure of the Dravidian movement who had even demanded a separate homeland for the Tamils in India.

Mr. Thirumavalavan reiterated that his party did not have any direct or indirect connection with the LTTE but had been only extending moral support to the organisation.