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Protests against Vaiko arrest in Sri Lanka

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO July 19. Rallies and demonstrations protesting the arrest of the MDMK leader, Vaiko, and calling for his immediate release were held by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), in Batticaloa and Mannar on Thursday. The rallies were organised by the Tamil National Alliance, a grouping of Tamil parties, which contested the last parliamentary elections on a pro-LTTE platform.

The events drew considerable media coverage from the Tamil newspapers published here, with all of them carrying front-page reports on the meetings. The state-run Thinakaran newspaper reported the Batticaloa MP, Joseph Pararajasingham, as telling the meeting that the arrest of Mr. Vaiko was ``a conspiracy by forces which were against the peace process''.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, also came under criticism as ``having degraded the Tamil community'' by arresting Mr. Vaiko. Sources in the east said a resolution urging the Indian authorities to release Mr. Vaiko was also handed over to district officials.

Protesting the arrest, the general secretary of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Front, M.K. Eelaventhan, in a letter to the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, said, ``the Sri Lankan Government has recognised them as the authentic representatives of the Tamils to parley with for solving the ethnic problem'' and that Mr. Vaiko ``has extended the same recognition.''

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