South Asia News
Man lights self on fire in India to protest plight of Tamils
Jan 29, 2009, 11:50 GMT
New Delhi - A 31-year-old man committed suicide in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu Thursday to highlight the suffering of members of the Tamil ethnic minority caught in the war in Sri Lanka, news reports said.
The man doused himself with kerosene and set himself on fire while chanting pro-Tamil slogans outside a federal government office complex in the state capital, Chennai, the CNN-IBN network reported.
He was moved to a nearby government hospital with burns over 75 per cent of his body and died shortly after being admitted.
Before committing suicide, he also shouted slogans accusing the Indian government of inaction in protecting Tamils in Sri Lanka, the news channel reported.
Tamils in the southern Indian state, estimated to number about 60 million, have close links with Sri Lanka's Tamils.
Police later said the man used to work at a magazine owned by the Pattali Makkal Katchi, a regional party that is a staunch critic of the Indian government on the Sri Lanka issue.
Over recent weeks, political parties in Tamil Nadu have expressed concern over the safety of Tamil civilians caught in fighting in Sri Lanka between the government and Tamil separatist rebels and have pressed the Indian government to monitor their plight.
Aid agencies estimated that 250,000 civilians were trapped in rebel-held areas in northern Sri Lanka where the fighting is raging. The government said the figure might be around 150,000.
The government earlier denied a widely circulated report that claimed more than 300 internally displaced persons had been killed and more than 1,000 injured in shelling in recent days.
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Older Talkback
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Well the casualty and atrocities are incomprehensible. The fate of the Sri Lankan Tamils is horrible, because both Sri Lankan government and Indian government are willing to commit any type of atrocities to defeat LTTE which has fought for 25 years to create a homeland for the Tamils there.
I am watching videos that show the severity of this war. Videos that shows shelling of civilian in areas that the army announced as Safe Zone after the people assemble there (desicritics.org/2009/01/28/034801.php).
Videos that show Sri Lankan armed personal stripping naked the dead bodies of fallen LTTE female rebels and cutting the breasts with knife. (desicritics.org/2009/01/09/064957.php - A link to the original video is available in the second comment).
Since this is happening in a region of world that does not have much world attention, India and Sri Lanka have been able to get away with all the human rights violations.
Human Values! - Human Rights! Human Decency! I lost any hope in all these terms after watching the fate of the Sri Lankan Tamils. Nobody in this world should suffer the fate of the Tamils.
Peace to the world. Peace to you.
It is not correct for India as a Democratic and Terrorist (Muslim) affected country to interfere in Sri Lanka and ask them not to kill the Terrorist as they are Tamilians. Whetehr Tamilians or any ethnic group or religious group, Terrorists are terrorists. They should be crushed without showing any humanity as they (terrorists) are daily killing thousands of innocent people without looking whetehr they are children, women. They why you people are keeping sympathy with terrorists. When terrorists kill innocent people, why you people are not airing your voice? It means you people are silently supporting them. The man who committed, I think, is mentally not grown and cannot think other than Tamil and Tamilians and is the staunch supporter of terror group LTTE as PMK is the staunch supporter of LTTE. All world know that LTTE is the number one terrorist group in Asia. From where Prabhakaran amassed such arms, amunitions and military capabilities? This should be probed. If anybody from India is found in connivance with LTTE, stringent and capital punishment should be awarded, so that nobody in future will dare to indulge in such activities.
page: 1
Rob MackJan 29th, 2009 - 12:57:10
Are we not living in 21st century? Why no respect for human rights? Why doesn't India ensure that its neighborhood is abuse-free? Perhaps western governments should step in and protect the minorities in Srilanka.
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