CHENNAI: MDMK general secretary Vaiko on Thursday urged Members of European Parliament (MEPs) to push for a referendum in Tamil regions of Sri Lanka, over the creation of a separate Tamil Eelam. This was among the eight recommendations he made to the MEPs at a hearing on the issue, in Brussels on Tuesday.Vaiko had been invited to speak at the hearing on the basis of his support to the Eelam cause as chief of the MDMK. His speech on human rights violations during the recently concluded Eelam War IV and the genesis of the civil conflict on the island nations, was similar to the speeches he delivered recently in Chennai to mark the second anniversary of the Mullivaikkal Massacre.The hearing, organised by the Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/UGL group) of European Parliament, is considering sending a fact-finding team to Lanka to recommend a stance to be taken on the issue. Vaiko quoted grisly accounts of rights violations by Lankan armed forces - from the UN’s three-member panel report. He also outlined the genesis and evolution of the problem over the years and listed instances in which UN and Red Cross facilities had come under shelling by Lankan forces. Delivering a 15-minute speech, Vaiko said, “What could be lasting solution to this Tamil national ethnic problem in Lanka? The only solution is the formation of a separate nation, the cause for which hundreds of thousands of Tamils have laid down their lives and have shed their blood. Why should the Tamils live as a subjugated race under the cruel, racial yoke of Sinhalese?”He cited similar precedents in Kosovo, South Sudan and East Timor. He also built a case for the trial of Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse and his government for war crimes.
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