TN CM flayed for packing off SL cops

Karunanidhi had sent back 200 Lankan cops who were being trained at CRPF academy, reports PK Balachandran.

The President of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), V Anandasangaree, has flayed the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi, for unceremoniously sending back 200 Sri Lankan police officers being trained at the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Academy in Coimbatore.

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In a letter to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, dated August 8, the moderate pro-government Sri Lankan Tamil politician said that his action was "hasty and ill-advised."

Anandasangaree explained to Karunanidhi that the Sri Lankan police force was not a fighting force. It was meant only to maintain law and order, investigate crimes and file complaints.

Training them in modern policing methods could not be construed as military aid.

Stressing the need to improve the police force from the Tamils' point view, and also to help them defend themselves against the LTTE, Anandasangaree said that there were no Tamil knowing police officers in the Tamil-speaking North East's 200 police stations.

Many police officers, including Tamil officers, had been killed by the LTTE.

The Sri Lankan Tamil leader said that sending back the police officers from the academy in Coimbatore would spoil India-Sri Lanka relations.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had taken the action "without full knowledge of the ground situation merely to satisfy some political organisations," Anandasangaree said.

Urging Karunanidhi to revise his decision, Anandasangaree invited him to visit Sri Lanka because a good number of Sinhalas, Tamils and Muslims, genuinely believed that he could play an important role in finding a solution to the ethnic problem in the island.

The Central government's decision to send back the Sri Lankan police officers from Coimbatore was taken at the request of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, who in turn, was under pressure from the pro-LTTE political parties in the State Assembly such as the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) led by Vaiko, and the Viduthalai Sirutthailgal (Liberation Panthers) led by Thirumavalavan.